Keeping Secrets
by mirage24
Summary: What happened to Robert and why did he lie to keep his son safe? Why did Captain Bridger join up with Section 7 in season 3? What was done to find seaQuest when she disappeared in 2022? Are things as disconnected as they seem? AU but hoping to make sense of canon continuity issues. Takes places after events of ssn3, and my two one-shots "Those Nights" and "Dinner First".
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: I don't own this stuff. I still don't have my own seaQuest. But I'm almost no longer a broke college student. In fact, I'm almost a broke college grad.

**NOTE**: This is a sequel to "Those Nights" and "Dinner First" and is a direct result of the events of "Dinner First".

**Keeping Secrets  
**

**Chapter 1**

He looked older than I remembered…but somehow not old enough. Truth be told, I actually didn't recognize him at first. But he called me by my full name, not the nickname of "Rob" and that's when I knew.

The tan skin, grey beard, fierce eyes… _Dad_.

But this was wrong, all wrong.

I didn't run to him like I would have if I were a kid. I didn't run to greet him, to hug him and to hold him close. Instead I just stared at him, watching him watch me. Neither of us knew what move to make. I didn't understand why but then I remembered.

I hid a lot from him. I didn't mean to… didn't even really _have_ to. Dad was a trustworthy guy and he used to run the most top secret boat in the fleet.

Or so he thought. But even the UEO has secrets. And even a son has secrets from his father.

We stared each other down. Not in a malicious way, just… looking. But not like you were looking to see how much someone changed or if they grew wrinkles or anything like that. No, we were simply just looking. Not quite basking in each others' presence but not ignoring each other either.

That's when a kid showed up behind him, saying, "Captain! Captain we have to leave now!" Not so much a kid but still pretty young. And was my father even still a Captain anymore anyway?

"We have to go," he said to me.

I looked down to the shackles keeping me restrained. I shook the chains and they rattled against the wall. "I'm not going anywhere unless you have something to cut these with."

The next thing I remembered was a bright white light filling the room, utter silence and then an explosion that shook my body.

* * *

The wind tossed my hair around and that's when I decided I needed a haircut. I'd find someone with the appropriate tools sometime tomorrow morning after my shift ended. Until then, I enjoyed the salt-kissed air and the feel of a boat rocking back and forth. I knew it wouldn't last long, though. By morning we'd be submerged again, transformed back into the submarine _Achilles_ was originally meant to be. They added the surface-form and its features about halfway into the project and until now we relished in the topside breeze.

But three months in was enough time to get everyone acquainted with the project, with the _Achilles_ and its systems, and with each other. After all, we were in for the long haul. This tour would last two years minimum with an expected maximum of five. We were going to rearrange space and time as we knew it, of course it wouldn't be a short tour.

Krieg would have loved this stuff. He always pretended not to understand but I always thought it was an act to get the ladies. Sure, there were always things we ran into and didn't understand from time to time but how could you negate the sheer amount of power this project would bring to the world? The amount of knowledge alone could change the way we conceptualize so many things…

I wish I could tell Dad. I write to him about it, even leave messages via Vidlink. I can't tell him everything, obviously, but I ask questions. I ask what he thinks about the universe, the way space and time work. I ask if he thinks we can bend it to our will.

He thinks I'm crazy, since I'm just an officer. I'm not a science guy like him. I don't understand and hey, maybe I don't. But I'm not in the military to understand, I was assigned to this project purely to serve on _Achilles_. Heck, I probably wouldn't even know about the true nature of the project if it wasn't for Justin and Addy. But that's how it always goes, isn't it? The Navy guys run the boat and know nothing and the science crew gets all the credit.

Fine by me, as long as they don't get us killed.

* * *

**A/N:** I like doing these at the bottom. I think I'll do that from now on.

TEASER CHAPTER. Yeah, I know. Sorry. More to follow sometime soon. I'm currently juggling this and two other original fiction projects at the same time, and sending a third out to agents and such. And yes, the project onboard the _Achilles_ is exactly what it sounds like. And no, I don't know exactly where I'm going with this yet. I'll figure it out. Have a good night everyone :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Robert, December 2010**

Addy and I watched the test tube, hoping for some type of reaction. We've spent hours like this during the last few months of the tour. Ever since we submerged for the first leg of the next few years, we've been stuck down here in the lab. Addy and I work here, or rather she does. I just stand watch. She's the brilliant scientist in this relationship, so different from my parents'. And that was fine by me, leave the slides and test tubes to them.

The _Achilles_ moved quickly through the water, slick as an eel. Its speed couldn't be matched and neither could its ability to quickly transform from submersible to surface dwelling in minutes. It could be done quicker if no one was on board but with a compliment of 150 it was impossible to count on that. Most of that crew were scientists, with a handful of Command Staff and MPs like myself, seemingly just there for the ride.

Don't get me wrong, I know how important and top secret this project is, it's just that... How much trouble could the scientists get into anyways? Even with this?

The test tube Addy and I were watching exploded just then and I got my answer. Addy sat there, staring at it as I jumped up to dab out the remaining smoke before alarms went off. "Are you okay?"

Addy just laughed. She thought that kind of stuff was cool and here I was trying to clean up after her.

"Just shows me for mixing that together," she laughed.

"What was it?" I asked her.

"Does it matter?" She looked to me, "None of us knows what we're getting ourselves into. Not really."

"Me least of all, so can you please stop mixing things just for effect?"

Addy stood and took one of my hands, looking me in the eyes. "I'm sorry, okay? It's half my job, half for fun. No more purposeful explosions, I promise."

I felt my expression soften. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Robert."

I loved it when she used my full name. I hated when people shortened it to 'Rob' or 'Robbie' or better yet, 'Bobbie'. I wanted to ask her to marry me but we had long decided to wait until this tour was over. We met sometime beforehand and I felt it unfair to promise a wedding, marriage and all that came with it when we were risking our lives for something that might not even work, much less better humanity.

No, that'd be too unfair. I brushed a loose strand of her sandy blonde hair out her face and smiled.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing." My communicator beeped then, and I stepped backward a foot. "Bridger."

"Bridge. Now." It was the Captain's voice and he didn't sound happy. His end disconnected.

"If it's about the tube—"

I quieted her with a quick kiss. "Don't worry about it. Dinner?"

Addy didn't look convinced but gave in anyway. "You bet."

* * *

I made it down to the Bridge in under a minute after leaving Addy. When I got there, the place was a chaotic mess. People were walking with quick steps from station to station as one of the main screens blared some news report.

I rushed up to the Captain's station, where he stood watching the main screen. "Captain?"

"PR nightmare," was all Captain Matthews said at first. He was young, much younger than my father, but he must have knew what he was doing if they put him in charge of this project.

"Sir?"

"Someone tried leaking details of this program and the ship," he said. "_Achilles_ is more top secret than Area 51 was!"

So why did he want me? "Area 51 isn't exactly classified anymore, sir," I reminded him, hoping he'd get to his point.

"Your father has connections, right?" he asked me. "If this story makes it out, can we enlist his help?"

"I'm sure he'd do anything he could to help," I said. "But—"

Captain Matthews turned from me to look at a station as an alarm there started wailing. "Chief?"

"Deck breach on 7, sir. The reactor casing is having trouble containing the field."

Matthews shook his head. "It's been doing that for the last hour. I need you down there to keep order, Lieutenant."

I nodded once, saluted and left. If we couldn't even control a reactor casing to prevent overload, what let them think we could control pathways to time?


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Addy, December 2010**

Robert Bridger. That man. I wasn't entirely happy with our "no marriage before the end of the tour" pact but I understood why. Plus he was pretty high up on the chain of command considering who they had to pick from for this posting.

The UEO needed the best of the best— who were free and willing to commit to up to five years at sea. Robert was a great strategist and an eternal people-person, which is exactly what Captain Matthews needed at this stage. Everyone was still concerned with how wrong this all could go, although no one said anything out loud.

With Robert gone, my lab was quiet. I could hear the hum of the machines and it put me at rest. They reassured me that we'd all be fine. It was all just one big science experiment after all, right? Science I could do.

Those thoughts were squashed when Charlie Mason came through the lab doors and announced, "They've had another breach on 7."

"Already?" I asked in disbelief. "What are they doing down there, sleeping?"

Charlie, my intern and lab assistant, shrugged with the slightest hint of a smile. "I don't know. But if they are, kudos to them. I haven't slept in two days because of it."

Some internship. "They'll figure it out. We haven't been out here for that long. Besides, this is a whole new type of technology."

Charlie lifted some test tube trays into his arms. "Because that makes me feel completely safe. I was supposed to be doing lab work, not help the military with their wormholes that will never work."

"You _are_ doing lab work, Charlie," I told him.

"_Classified_ lab work," he clarified with great sarcasm then took the action back. "Sorry."

I nodded. "It's fine. I'm in the same boat as you there, remember that. Nothing I do here will ever see the light of day, either, Charlie. And how do you know it will never work?"

"You can't artificially create that stuff, too many variables have to be right— things _we_ can't control."

"I thought that was just for wormholes in space."

He rolled his eyes and headed for the door saying, "So we drown instead of asphyxiating in the vacuum dead of space, whatever." Charlie shouldered the door open and left.

I rolled my eyes. "Have some faith, kid."

The rest of the afternoon went by as quickly as it ever did, and soon I met Robert for dinner in the mess hall. He was telling me about all the issues they were having on Deck 7 lately. That's the deck where they did all the research and experimentation on the mobius hole devices, and it spanned almost two stories in height. I've never actually been down there but I have talked to people who have. They say it's amazing to look at when in action, even if it's incredibly unstable.

Eventually we became more engrossed in our food than our conversation, and all talking stopped. Not in a bad way, just a "busy" way. Finally I looked up to him and asked, "Have you talked to your parents lately?"

"Why, have you?" he countered.

"My own, yes," I said. "Robert…"

"There is no way in hell I can talk to him and expect to keep this," he said, gesturing to the ship as a whole, "secret. No way."

"So you just don't talk to him?" I asked. That didn't seem fair.

"This is huge, Addison," he said. "A sub that can become a ship in minutes. I mean, we're talking about taking his long-time dream of that research sub and making it seem like a baby's toy—just by _being_ here, forget what we're doing!"

"Well are we at least going to visit them for leave during Christmas?" I asked. I wanted to see my family, too, however, I was disturbed by Robert's uncalled for aversion to his own.

He nodded. "Yeah, of course!"

"Good. Charlie, my intern, thinks they can't do it," I told him. "The mobius holes, I mean. At the rate they're going, we may be home for Christmas for good!"

"Wishful thinking." He looked at his plate. "I doubt Captain Matthews would go for it, anyways."

"I doubt he goes for much of anything," I mumbled.

"At least one of us gets to say what they think without risking court martial."

I reached for his hand. "Don't say that."

"I'm just tired," Robert said, standing up. "Back to my quarters?"

"Of course."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Robert, January 2011**

It wasn't long before Captain Matthews had me called down to Deck 7 again. Progress wasn't being made. Worse, things were getting more and more chaotic as the days went on. I wasn't able to be home for Christmas because of it, although I was able to pull enough strings to get Addy home. I talked to my family via Vidlink but that was about it. I was stationed down on Deck 7 for most of the leave I should have had and almost hated every moment of it. To me, if it didn't work safely by now, it wasn't going to. But the science contingent was insistent and the military needed their mobius hole technology.

It was really only then that I started questioning the whole project. What did they need it for _so badly_ that they were still willing to risk everything for it? I half considered asking Dad but I didn't want his dreams to rest on what happened here. After all, why create a second "super sub" when this one would probably be decommissioned and taken apart the moment this project ended. In fact, I was questioning it all so much, that our Vidlink conversation went a bit like this:

I waved into the camera, "Hey Dad."

"Robert! How are you?" He looked over his shoulder at Mom, who was yelling something I couldn't understand. Hooking a thumb over that same shoulder, saying, "She says hello, too."

I nodded. "Send my love."

"Done deal," he said. "We missed you at Christmas. What gives?"

Uh, yeah, I still hadn't told him about Addison. Maybe I could talk about that this time instead of _Achilles_… I shrugged. "They wouldn't let me leave."

"All I would have had to do is call—"

I shook my head. "It's okay. There will be plenty more Christmases, Dad. And I'll be home for Easter for sure." Especially if things kept going the way they were, but I didn't tell him that.

He smiled and for the first time I realized how long his beard had gotten. "You need to shave that thing," I told him, pointing in a joking matter toward his beard.

He rubbed at it. "At least I can grow one."

"I guess there's that." I meant it as a joke back but it didn't quite come across as such and he caught it.

"Why are you really calling?"

"That transparent?" I asked but it was clearly rhetoric. "What if you don't agree with what is going on? Is it worth a court martial to say something?"

He took a moment before saying anything at all. "It has always been my opinion that someone under your command—military or civilian—should always be able to voice their true opinions without fear of reprimand. Within reason, of course."

"And if the reason you're afraid is something well known amongst the rest of the crew but no one listens?"

"What are you up to over there?" he asked, eyes narrowing. Clearly he could sense the weight of my situation. "And how many calls will I have to make to find out the true story if you won't tell me?"

"I can't, Dad…"

"Right," he said, then pointed directly at the screen, at me. "If your gut tells you it's wrong, do something."

_Do something_.

It wasn't long before Christmas leave was over and Addy was back, though, and that's when things _really_ started to go crazy.

I woke up to the "general quarters" alarm and shot out of bed, throwing on a uniform somewhere in the process. I ran down the corridors towards the Bridge, sidestepping and dodging confused scientists as I went. I swiped my ID card just before the bulkhead doors to the Bridge shut, and took my place behind the Captain's station and waited for orders.

Captain Matthews turned to me. "We're about to be boarded. Grab your best security team and head down to the docking bay."

I was confused. If we were being boarded, why not evacuate the civilians? "Boarded by who, sir?"

"Our own people," he muttered. "Just don't shoot anyone in a U.S. uniform."

"Sir, can I ask what's going on?"

"No."

I stood up straighter, "Aye, Captain," and I left. The looks of confusion in the docking bay were clear: we should never be forcibly boarded by our _own_ people, especially with a project like this. The security clearance necessary just to be onboard the _Achilles_ alone was unobtainable to most of the world's population. I made my way through the chaos, to the soldiers starting to come aboard. Their weapons weren't at the ready but the atmosphere was clear: obey orders, shut up and stay out of the way.

"Ah, Lieutenant Bridger," someone called to me. I turned to find someone in Captain's stripes staring me down. I came to attention, saluted and waited for him to say something else. "Tell your Captain I need to see him in your conference room as soon as humanly possible."

"Everyone's a bit busy with your boarding us," I said, then quickly added, "Sir." I didn't mean to make it sound snarky, I really didn't, but it came out that way and he was clearly unappreciative of it.

"This program is over," he said as he shouldered by me and began to head in the general direction of the conference room.

I took a few quick steps to catch up with him. "Captain, sir, you can't just walk around here." He stopped to look at me, so I added, "With all due respect, sir."

"With all due _respect_," he mimicked, "you people have been in business for less than a year and you're already screwing up."

But can you screw something up if it never worked in the first place? That was the question of the year, wasn't it?


	5. Chapter 5

** Chapter 5**

**Addy, January 2011**

The general quarters alarm startled me out of my concentration. Three hours staring at a microscope only to be interrupted by that alarm was not a healthy way to start the morning. I didn't really have a place to go, though, so I decided to take a look around.

I made my way out of the science labs and through the throng of people hurriedly moving to their various stations. I saw a quick glimpse of Robert's face through in the chaos and started making my way toward him. The alarm for Deck 7 went off all the time, but general quarters? Wasn't that usually a bad thing? Like, "the sub was going to go down" kind of bad?

I managed to reach him, pulling on his arm to get his attention. "What's going on?"

He barely turned his head to me to say, "Go back to the labs, Addy," before taking another step.

I held firmly onto his arm. "Robert."

"Addison."

"What is going on?"

Robert's expression softened. "I don't know yet. They just came aboard. Look, just go back to the labs and carry out your day as normal unless things change and you're told to do something else by someone in command. And say nothing to anyone who's not a crew member of the _Achilles_ beyond pleasantries."

I nodded. "Okay but—"

"I need to go." He unhooked my hand from his arm and kept going, leaving me stranded in the sea of people.

* * *

Hours passed and I never heard from Robert. I got lunch alone and grabbed Charlie for dinner when I realized Robert wasn't going to make it. Besides, Charlie and I had numerous reports to go through, anyway, and there just wasn't enough time in the day lately.

Science was like that, though. You think you reach the end of the line or the bottom of a story and then BAM—a new discovery or rethinking of someone's old hypothesis lands you another three days of testing. Charlie and I and the small team I was in charge of were doing some biologic testing. Nothing special but apparently somehow related to whatever was going on these days with the mobius hole project on Deck 7. I knew enough about astrophysics and all that to work with them but was placed here anyway.

And quite frankly, by the looks of things, I'm happy that's the way it ended up. I mean, I'm not one to back down from a challenge or to not take an assignment because someone else couldn't figure it out but it's gone far beyond that now with the mobius holes. Either they weren't able to produce one or they were able to and it wasn't stable enough to use yet. The containment issues would suggest the latter but the general sense of failure convinced me of the former.

"Why were we boarded this morning by our own military?" Charlie asked out of the blue.

I raised an eyebrow. "Boarded?"

He nodded. "Uh, yeah. Where have you been?"

Robert didn't say that we were _boarded_, just that they arrived. I must have looked defeated. "I'm an idiot."

Charlie didn't comment on that part. "Do you know why we would have been? Do I have to make a call to my family or something in case we all go to prison or something?"

Okay, so the kid was a bit paranoid and I suppose that at his age I would have been, too. "No. I'm sure everything's fine, Charlie."

"Do you think Lieutenant Bridger would have told you otherwise?" he said it straight-faced but the tone with which he said it was clear. I couldn't hide our relationship from him or the Captain but as far as everyone else was concerned, I'm pretty sure we looked like just friends.

"Yes," I said simply.

"But he said nothing?"

"Correct," I said. "So far, at least." I sighed. "I haven't seen him since general quarters was sounded this morning."

"Well, at least we're not all handcuffed or corralled somewhere," he said, reaching for some salt.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

He looked to me and gestured with the salt shaker, "You know, it helps to prove me wrong on my 'we're all about to be imprisoned' theory."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Leave it to him to joke despite his fear and paranoia.

"Mind if I cut in?"

I looked up to find an exhausted -looking Robert Bridger. "Of course." He sat down between Charlie and I at the square table and rubbed his neck.

"So?" Charlie pestered him without wasting a single second.

"So what?" Robert snapped then cringed. "Sorry. Long day."

"And night, by the looks of it," I said. "Did you sleep at all between getting off bridge duty and that alarm?"

"No," he answered. "Not really. I keep replaying that last conversation I had with Dad in my head. Over and over," he said, making small circles in the air with a finger.

"What happened today?" Charlie continued asking.

Robert rubbed at his face with both hands now, trying to wake himself up. "They're just not happy with our lack of progress. They wanted to change out command but Captain Matthews managed to convince them that the problem is part of a natural process, something out of our ability to control at the moment and so he's staying."

"But?" I asked, knowing there had to be something.

He shrugged. "Something about a review board report every week. They just want to complete this project as soon as possible."

I read between the lines. "You don't think we can." Statement, not a question.

"It doesn't matter what I think," he said, expression unreadable because his hands were still in the way.

"Of course it does, you're the on the Captain's senior staff!"

"It doesn't matter," he repeated, finally looking up at me. "Once they've got plans, the higher ups aren't going to settle for anything less."

"And what exactly _are_ those plans?" Charlie asked.

Robert just shook his head. "Don't worry about it, kid."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**Robert, January 2011**

It's hard to make civilians understand sometimes. Things don't always work in a commonsense way for us like it does for them. It's not, "Feels wrong, change something" for me but rather, "feels wrong, wait for orders". Even if Dad said otherwise, I didn't think Captain Matthews would go for that unless he specifically asked for my opinion.

And my opinion, you ask? I just wanted to go home. Not in that "whiny, small child" type of way but I needed to clear my head. It wasn't that we were boarded that finally got to me, it was the fact that we were continuing on with this project regardless. It's that Matthews pushed so hard to stay in command when it was clear this project wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Beyond that, it was getting to the point where it didn't matter where we were or weren't going with this project, it was more a question of why it mattered so damn much.

I sat across the table from Captain Callaghan but next to Captain Matthews and a few others on the senior staff. As an MP, I didn't really understand why I needed to be here but then I realized it's because of who I am and not necessarily what I do or how well I do it that earned me that right. Even Matthews wanted to contact the elder Bridger in this family for help.

I tried not to let it get to me too much.

"The agreement is you get to stay in command so long as progress is being made," Captain Callaghan told Matthews. "Submit a report to the review board every week. The second you and your crew lose face again, you're done. This project may not even live long enough to see another Captain."

He said it as a threat but it was clear by the tone with which he said it that Callaghan was not particularly happy about that. He was sent out here to _take_ command from Matthews in the first place, after all, and now he may _never_ get this command.

"Agreed," Captain Matthews said.

Callaghan passed him some kind of document which they further went over, signed and packed back into Callaghan's briefcase. Callaghan stood and left, leaving most of the senior crew along with Matthews and I.

Captain Matthews stood and addressed all of us when he said, "Just say it already."

"With all due respect, sir," Georgeston, the head of Engineering, spoke first. "This is messed up."

I turned to look at him despite my better judgment. No one was ever that frank or familiar with Captain Matthews. No one.

Georgeston must have seen the looks on everyone's faces, which only further supported my thoughts, because he then added, "That is the only way I can phrase it, sir, sorry."

"Well today's your lucky day, Georgeston, because I fully agree with you."

Georgeston looked surprised but quickly pulled himself together. "You do?"

Captain Matthews looked at each of us in turn. "It's no secret we have a problem. We have to start 'making progress'—whatever that means—or we're all going to lose our jobs. I won't pretend it could get worse from there, either."

If it was so important to finish the project, why did it matter who was in charge? Not that I didn't like Captain Matthews (although, that certainly depended on the day you asked me) but if someone else could produce better results, quicker… why did it matter? He'd still get a Captain posting somewhere and probably have less chance to risk his life with the unknown in the process. In return, the military and government would get whatever they wanted out of this project in a much faster turnaround time.

To me, that was pretty clear cut. So why did Captain Matthews choose to hang on? Out spite? For his own ego?

"Our first priority is containment," Captain Matthews continued. "We will make improvements to the casing surrounding Deck 7 in general, followed by testing the mobius holes on a smaller scale. Start small and work big. That's our new motto."

"So basically we're starting from scratch," Commander Adam Julian, XO of the _Achilles_, asked.

Matthews nodded reluctantly. "It appears so. But then we can show them 'progress'."

I saw what he was doing. But it still made no sense to the bigger picture. To me, it still looked like he was trying to save his own ass.

"With respect, sir…" I started… but then stopped. Was it my place to say anything? _Do something_. My father's words rang in my head.

"Yes, Bridger?"

I looked up at him and held eye contact. "Can we even do this, Captain?" I knew the second the words came out of my mouth that I had finally voiced the question so many were afraid to ask, and I kept going. Why stop now? "It's dangerous and unpredictable. I'm beginning to think this is something we just shouldn't be messing with, sir."

Captain Matthews didn't answer. Instead, he dismissed all of us. I was the last one to leave the room and right before I stepped through the door to the hallway, I swear I heard him say, "Me too, Lieutenant. Me too."

But I wasn't sure if that was for my ears or not, so I said nothing.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** This one is late, I know. Work is about to get crazy for the next little bit and I do go on vacation soon. I'm going to try to write and post a bunch to make it through the next few weeks before I go away for a week and a half. I've been trying to post a new chapter every Wednesday night/Thursday morning but last week got a bit crazy. So here's this one and I will post again soon.

Also, I know there's a lot more people reading than are reviewing. Even if you do it as an anynomous guest user, letting me know what you think of the story so far would be greatly appreciated! I know things may be a little slow right now but soon it will get crazier, I promise!

Have a great week everybody!

**Chapter 7**

**Addy, March 2011**

Ever since the boarding, things have been tense. Robert's starting to keep his distance from everyone, including me—either out of necessity or per orders, I have no idea. In fact, the whole command senior staff has been out of sync with the rest of the crew since January. It's causing the science and military contingent to also grow apart where before it didn't matter. I'm starting to spend more meals with Charlie than Robert, more nights in the lab than in my own bed. Too much work to do, not enough people to do it. Too vague goals and no clear way to obtain them.

Sounds a whole lot like my first summer job.

I rubbed at my forehead to clear the thoughts. I wasn't a cashier anymore and this wasn't a store. The machine units and array of test tubes in front of me were evidence enough of that.

My overworked assistant shouldered a door open like he did every day after grabbing too much from one lab to bring to another. His motions lately were slow, exhausted, where before they were energetic and full of curiosity. Everyone used to be so excited about the prospect of mobius holes but since the boarding, the whole science contingent has been less than thrilled.

"Take the afternoon off," I told him. "You look awful."

"Thanks," he said. I knew he meant it sarcastically but no sarcasm made its way to the surface.

"Charlie, what's wrong?"

He placed everything down on a nearby table and looked to me. "They're cutting me soon."

I stopped what I was doing. "Excuse me?"

"They didn't tell you?"

"No. Like hell they're taking you." I stood up to leave, intending to talk to Captain Matthews.

"Hey, Addy, don't worry about it," he said, stepping into my path. "To be honest, this whole thing is getting kinda… you know..."

"No, I don't."

His eyes pleaded with me. "Yes you do."

"Charlie…"

"Addison, I don't want this anymore. Whatever it is they really want this for, it's not worth all of this stress and danger."

"It's not so dangerous anymore," I told him. "They got containment under control last month and they can even produce small holes safely."

"So what?" he asked.

"So… we're making progress."

Charlie shook his head like I was dumb. "No, I mean so what now? They can travel through time and space? Or is that not what they really have planned? I may have a reputation as a conspiracy theorist on the _Achilles_ but I think this one's legitimate. When this comes to the public's attention, I don't want any part of it."

I sighed. I had the same worries… but unlike him, I had nowhere else to go. "Let me at least talk to Matthews, to see if I can make sure you go somewhere worth it."

Charlie nodded. "Sounds good. Dinner, Doctor?"

"Of course. See you then."

* * *

"What do you mean you didn't put him in for a transfer?" I asked the Captain point-blank. No power in this world could get between me protecting anyone under my watch, especially Charlie. The kid has become like a kid brother to me since we started working together.

"I didn't put him in for transfer, Doctor," he said again, though I still didn't believe him. "Did Charlie say who did?"

"All he said was 'they'," I told him. "I assumed and am still assuming that meant you and your superiors."

"Everyone currently onboard is supposed to stay until this project is finished, that's what all your contracts and commissions state."

"Well clearly someone didn't get the memo," I said. "_If_ he is to be transferred, he better _damn_ well go somewhere worth it, Captain."

Matthews' eyebrows raised. "Do you want to try that tone again, Doctor?"

"No." I held my ground. "I'm sick of this game. You clearly have something up your sleeve. If you're going to take my lab assistant away, I want to make sure that he gets what he deserves. That he goes somewhere worth it. Charlie deserves it more than anyone else on this boat. He's smart, reliable, innovative—"

"I agree with you—"

"Then why are you letting them move him!" I demanded, nearing a shout.

"I'm not!" the Captain growled back. "I don't know what is going on but I intend to find out. In the meantime, you need to check your tone of voice when speaking to your commander. Science contingent or not, you're still under my command."

"And Charlie Mason is under mine. He was brought here for the internship of his life and will _not_ get kicked off of it because of some political nonsense in the military!"

I locked eyes with the Captain, daring him to take Charlie away without a fight from me.

"I told you I would figure out what is going on. You're dismissed."

"Yes _sir_," I said as curtly as possible, turned on heel and left.

* * *

"_Don't_ do that again, Addison."

"What, no nickname now?" I asked Robert. "What the _hell_ is going on? Do you want to turn on me, too, or does it not even matter anymore?"

He turned to me but a news bulletin screeched across the vidscreen showing global news in Robert's quarters. It caught his attention over mine, sending my anger skyrocketing.

"Robert Bridger! If you want this relationship to—"

"Shut up, Addy."

"_Excuse me_, Robbie?" Snarky as hell. Mocking? Oh yeah. "My face is over here, in case you wanted to continue this conversation anytime soon."

"Shh."

"No, you don't get to 'shh' me!" Robert reached out and grabbed me by the shoulders. "Hey! Get your hands—"

"Watch this!" he ordered.

I moved my eyes to the screen, to see what was worthy of grabbing me like that. My anger was beginning to turn into a weird sense of fear. He's never done that before, and we've never fought like this before. Then that anger-turned-fear began to turn into an emotion I couldn't place.

"Are you seeing this?" he asked me. "Is this really happening?"

I allowed my mind to process the news bulletin.

"If these claims are correct, then the U.S. Military may be facing a harsh reality," the newscaster said. "Whatever Mobius is, if it's a weapon and is as classified as it appears, it may be enough to spark World War III in our already tension-filled world."

Robert brought his radio from his belt to his face. "Captain Matthews, News8. They've got a story running about the _Achilles_ _Project_."

"I'm watching it. Briefing in five minutes when I'm off the phone with the Secretary General, DoD and President."

"Aye, sir." Then Robert's personal Vidlink connection started ringing, the caller ID stating it was his father. "Not now," he said.

He picked it up anyways, but the conversation eluded me as my brain started processing what just happened. From my demanding of him what was going on, to him _ordering_ me not to face off with the Captain again— like I was one of his military personnel—, to him grabbing me, and the news report….

I stared straight at the screen. My mind couldn't keep up, and so it started to shut down.

"Addy," I heard Robert say. "_Addy_! Hey, snap out of it." He placed a hand on my forearm and I jumped out his grasp.

"Don't," I said. But slowly. Still too many things to process.

"Hey," he said softly, placing a hand on the side of my face. I brought mine up to it and held his there. He made me meet his eyes. "I'm _so _sorry. I didn't mean to yell or to grab you like that."

"I was going off on you." I said. I knew it was my fault.

"Deservingly so. I know I haven't been myself lately… there's just so much going on… too much is…" He closed his eyes, clearly not knowing what to say.

I reached up and pulled his forehead closed to mine. "It's okay," I told him. Then I smiled. "First fight?"

He smiled back, eyes sparkling. "First fight. Wow."

"Let's not do that again."

"First and only fight, yes ma'am."

I smiled wider. "That's more like it, soldier."

He leaned in to kiss me, and for the first time in months I felt butterflies. This was the Robert I knew and loved. This was the Robert I needed in my life. "I love you," I said.

"I love you, too. And I'll see what I can do about Charlie."

"Tell the Captain I apologize."

"Nah," he waved it off. "He deserved it." He quickly put his hand to his mouth, knowing he shouldn't have said that. "Don't repeat that."

I laughed. "I won't, I promise."

"I feel like you're the only person in the world who could take him on."

"He just needs to learn not to come between me and people I care about is all," I shrugged.

"Of course." Robert's radio chirped. "Bridger."

"Briefing started five minutes ago. Get here in the next minute if you want to keep your rank, _Lieutenant_."

Robert cringed. "Yes sir."

"Charlie and I are getting dinner at 7."

"I'll be there," he said, then ran out the door.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:**If it wouldn't be crazy confusing, this chapter and the next one would have been combined. But I broke it apart by POV.

**Chapter 8**

**Robert, April 25th 2011**

The conversation-turned-argument was the only thing I could think about the entire briefing regarding the media link. To this day, I don't remember much about that briefing other than the Captain knew my head wasn't in the game. He pulled me aside afterwards to ask what was going on. All I told him was that it involved family. He told me to stay focused, and so I tried.

But that was a month ago and since then, things have only gotten worse onboard the _Achilles_. Progress was being made, but Captain Matthews was having us under-report the significant advances the science team was making. Like the fact that they could create and stabilize what their parameters defined as a "near full-sized" mobius hole in under ten minutes and keep it active and stable for a number of hours.

I just couldn't figure out why he wanted to keep that a secret. Probably to save his own ass. I mean, think about it. If you were about to be taken out of command, pending advancements, wouldn't _you_ want to under-report said progress, too? To space it out and keep it steady in order to save your own head later on? So that if one week, no progress was made, you could just stretch out the truth from the week before in hopes something would come in time for the following week?

It made sense in that light but overall… I think you already know my thoughts.

I tried to keep Addy from talking to Captain Matthews again. I love her but she's already said too much to him. We were able to keep Charlie from getting transferred and he seemed okay with it in the end. He liked Addy and figured starting his internship again somewhere new would only make things harder on him in the long run.

And everything else? Well… Captain Matthews kept asking me for my opinion. A lot. Way _too_ much, if you asked me. Just the other day, he called me over to his office to ask what I thought about the progress of the project.

"I think we're exponentially making headway, sir," I answered, but it must have been in enough of an uneasy tone because he called me out on it.

"But?"

"More of a why, sir," I said. "Why under-report it if we're doing so well?"

Matthews shook his head. "It's complicated."

"Permission to speak freely?"

"Granted."

"If it's so complicated that you can't explain it to me, why ask my opinion about it in the first place?"

He looked to me. "I don't want the military higher-ups to know how far we've gotten."

"Why?" I asked again. "Will they replace you with someone else as soon as we're close to finishing the project, sir?"

"Probably not," he answered. "But that's not my reasoning."

"Then what is?"

"I just don't want them to know," was all he continued to say. He wouldn't say why, and hasn't since. I felt like more of a friend, a confidant, than an officer he asked his opinion of. But why, then, still keep his reasons a secret?

All it did was reinforce the view I already had of him having a secret agenda, some hidden plans that may or may not follow in line with the goals of this project, or the well-being of the _Achilles_ crew. That last part, more than anything else, was something I would not stand for. If that was true, and the Commander wouldn't do anything, _then_ I would act.

But what could I do now but follow orders and wait?

* * *

I wasn't on duty when it happened. Wasn't anywhere near the Bridge. It all happened so fast and I don't remember much but when it happened, I thought the world was about to be torn apart.

The treadmill I was running on began shaking and if my brain hadn't registered I was on a submarine I would have sworn I was caught up in an earthquake. I stepped off of it, thinking it was just the machine breaking, and stepped into panic-mode in the same instant.

That's when water dripped onto my head. When I looked up to see why, the ceiling cracked and more water jetted at my face. First a little, manageable amount and within seconds it became a torrent. Someone pulled me out of the way and out of the room. We worked together to close the hatch before the room filled completely and my palm slammed emergency alarm.

"Hull breech, Gym on Deck 8."

_Deck 8_. Just as I said it, I realized what was happening. But I couldn't voice the thought into the comm system before the world seemed to white-out. No sight, no sounds. Just white and silence.

Moments passed by. Minutes. It felt like hours when a low hum started. My vision returned enough to see the crew member hunched over. I tried to take a few steps toward him, to see if he was okay, but the hum turned into a full-on bass and it blasted through. Sent us flying against the far wall.

My back connected with hull. I couldn't breathe. The air felt heavy.

I looked up. Blackness started engulfing the hatch I just sealed. Water poured out. The atmosphere became electrified.

Someone was pulling on me. I blacked out.

* * *

The next thing I remember was coming to on the Bridge. Someone was yelling in my face, shouting orders to me.

All I could think about was Addy. And the Charlie. And the crewman.

"Lieutenant!'

I snapped to. "Yes sir!"

"Start immediate evac of all crew. No one can stay on board." It was the Captain.

I heard someone shouting our Mayday through Communications to anyone who was listening. We would attempt to surface in order to give more time for evacuation but the safety of the crew had to be balanced with the destruction of the project. Of the mobius hole. The one we had under control for weeks now.

Under control.

"Sir, what happened?"


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**Addy, April 25th 2011**

As soon as the alarm went off, I was running. I was trying to find Charlie, to grab lab notes, to take everything of value to this project, shove it in a bag and get the hell out. If we were evacuating, it wasn't just a matter of a hull breech. No. _Achilles_ could only be fully emergency evacuated for one reason, and that reason was not something to mess with.

"Addy!" Charlie came running in.

"Grab that bag. Throw all the drives in there, quick!"

He did so. "Slides too?"

"Whatever you can grab in the next twenty seconds."

"Doctor, we need you to leave now!" said an officer as he came into the lab. Coming to escort us out, no doubt.

"Done!"Charlie announced.

"Same, let's go!"

I wasn't even worried about Robert. I knew the protocol. Senior staff would be out last, though long before the Captain. If he wasn't hurt or already dead, he'd make it out. Sure, I was worried about those other two options but something told me he was fine. When the hull breech alarm first went off, I felt something. A pang of worry. I just _knew_ something was wrong. But that was gone now. I knew he was fine. I couldn't explain why or how, I just…. _Knew_.

Charlie and I were escorted down to our evacuation point but just before we got into the shuttle, an officer grabbed his bag.

"Hey! We need that!" Charlie tugged back.

"No you don't," the officer said simply. Forcefully.

"Like hell we don't," I stepped in. "I'm the head of Science. Hand it back."

"Sorry, Doctor. Not this time." The officer tossed the bag to the side. That's when I noticed it. All the files the science crew tried to bring with them, all the hard work, everything… laying there in a pile.

This was not part of the evacuation plans.

Something has gone terribly wrong.

Well, clearly, I mean.

Corralled on a shuttle, all Charlie and I could do was wait.

* * *

And wait, we did. In "decompression" rooms meant for us to "decompress" in after our "traumatic" experience.

Traumatic, my ass. I knew the military personnel weren't being treated the same way. They weren't being made like farm cattle, and these weren't "decompression" rooms. These were holding cells. And after two days of not seeing anyone except for food deliveries, I realized we were in solitary confinement. Well, solitary in the sense that we saw no one. I was grouped with three other civilians from the _Achilles_— Charlie and two of the cooks from the dining hall.

Charlie was freaking out, and no amount of reassuring seemed to help. Clearly whatever was going on didn't mean we were going to get hurt, but the prospect of living like this for _any_ undetermined length of time was jarring.

And where the hell was Robert?

That's what really worried me. I knew he would break military protocol to make sure I was okay—he's done it before. But the fact that he hasn't even made contact yet unsettled me more than anything else. Was my instinct wrong? Was he dead after all?

My heart sank. This had to be a dream. No, a terrible, terrible nightmare that would all end soon. I had to be asleep and soon I would wake up.

* * *

But it seems I slept for a few more days after that, until finally I was taken out of the room to another, brighter chamber and told to sit. Minutes later, Captain Matthews and Robert came in the room. Robert looked fine but composed. I ignored everything my brain told me and rushed toward him, all but leaping into his arms. They closed around me and he held me close while I tried not to cry from the overwhelming range of emotions washing over me.

"What's going on?" I asked, still soaking up his strength.

"If you could sit down…" Captain Matthews said, purposely trailing off.

I unhooked myself from Robert but stopped to look in his eyes. He was clearly glad to see me safe and sound. He felt guilt for the last few days. But there was something else… dread?

I sat down. "Captain?"

Robert followed suit, sitting across from me like Matthews did.

"The _Achilles Project_ is over," he said simply. "The mobius holes are shut down, all research destroyed and the crew disbanded. What's left of _Achilles_ has been decommissioned and locked up forever."

Which begged the obvious question of, "And us?"

"To be detained until further notice."

* * *

**A/N**: The end of this chapter (those days Addy spent in confinement) brings us to May of 2011, when Robert Bridger goes what Nathan was told was "MIA/KIA in the North Atlantic" in the show. If I was going to be fully confusing, I'd add another chapter from Bridger's POV but I'll keep it to only 2 narrators haha. We know his side, anyways.


	10. Chapter 10

** Chapter 10**

**Addy, May 2011**

I don't even know how long it's really been since that conversation with Captain Matthews and Robert about what happened and why we were now here. If I had to take a guess, I'd say about three weeks have passed but it's kind of hard to judge time when you're stuck in a holding cell for reasons you don't even really understand. I had my theories, though, and none of them were good.

I couldn't figure out if we were _actually_ prisoners or not, but all of us (even the military personnel, as it turns out) were being detained in holding rooms at an undisclosed location until the government could figure out what the hell to do with all of us. By now, it's clear that the government had plans beyond space/time travel for the Mobius holes, and my only guess is that those plans involved war—just like that news reported all those weeks ago thought. That's why we were locked up, so that they can keep us contained and quiet. So that no one (except them) could question us about what happened that day onboard the _Achilles_.

That's how it always goes, though, isn't it? Get all the scientists to work on ground-breaking technology, don't tell them what it's _really_ for, and then when the whole thing goes south because people find out about what its true purpose is for or because some terrible accident occurs, all the scientists get locked up—along with every other crew member.

_Figures_.

I was hoping there would be a point at which I'd stop being angry and start getting my head together enough to fight back or escape, but it still hasn't happened yet. Even more angering was the fact that Robert hasn't made an appearance since that mini-briefing. I knew he was being held, too, but where? For how long? Why couldn't I see him or the rest of the crew? If you're going to detain all of us, why not give us time to be with each other? Why confine four of us at a time to a room if the reason for the last question was because you didn't want us all talking and conspiring together? A team of four could do more damage than a crew of 200.

None of it made sense. All I could do was wait, and talk to Charlie, Carl and Joanna. That's it.

Something else started to eat away at me during the time I was being held there. Captain Matthews seemed _happy_ when the _Achilles_ project was stopped. Sure, he was somber about the fact we were all prisoners but—

"I can't do it anymore!" Charlie shouted.

"It's going to be okay," I reassured him, like I did every day.

He stood roughly from the table they provided us with, jostling my coffee mug off of the table and onto the floor. "Don't you get it?" he pointed towards the door. "They're going to keep us here until we're too old to remember what happened!" His voice got louder with every word. "They probably won't even give us work to do! Dammit! I signed up for an internship, not a prison sentence!"

That described it a lot, didn't it? "None of us wanted this. But this is the hand we were dealt, wasn't it? So we have to make the best—"

"Don't even say it, Addy. There's nothing to make the best of here. Even _they_ don't know what to do with us. If it _was_ a weapon they were making, then the secret's out. The only way that accident could have ended was in a massive explosion big enough to get noticed for miles, and you know it. They just took us out quick enough that we didn't see how it ended."

"So the world has another weapon, so what?" Carl asked from the corner. "They can't keep us locked up forever, kid. We didn't do anything wrong."

"Unless we do go to war," Charlie said. "Then we're accessories to war crimes. And we _can_ be locked up forever for that."

I looked at Charlie, hoping he wasn't right.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**Robert, May 2011**

_The ceiling was caving in above me, crumbling away to a nothingness with gravity strong enough to suck everything into it. _This must be what being inside of a black hole feels like_, I thought, but I knew that couldn't be right. If you were in a black hole, you probably wouldn't even know what was happening to you until it was too late._

_ No, here I knew what was happening. I could feel it. Every part of my being was gravitating unwillingly toward that mass of nothing, that black hole in the ceiling. Then there was white and silence. And then an explosion. In that explosion I saw Addy and Mom and Dad. They were standing there, shaking their heads at me, disappointment written across all of their faces. I failed them, but how?_

_ Every part of my body started aching. Then that aching turned to pain. Sharp stabs of needles and other weapons, attacking all the pain receptors on my body. Pulling me toward the black hole in my ceiling. Just as I almost reached the mouth of it, when I could feel its electricity, the scene changed to the Gym where the first Mobius hole accident occurred. I was there again, with the ceiling crumbling and the room flooding and the Mobius hole growing and electrifying the air. This time, there was no one in the room with me, no one to help me up and out of the way. I was stuck to the ground. I couldn't move. I started drowning. The water filled my lungs. It burned. It—_

I jerked awake, sitting straight up. Unable to move. Barely able to breathe. When I could breathe again, it came in waves of heavy, deep breaths and shallow, short gasps. I thought I was there again. I thought I was going to die.

I needed Addy. I needed her strength, her warmth. To feel her next to me. To watch her sleep. To know she was okay, so that I could be okay, too.

I got out of bed, deciding to use my privilege of being one of the few people not _entirely_ chained down to their rooms. I'd broken protocol to see her before, when we were back on the _Achilles_. Captain Matthews and his higher ups could deal with it happening now. Just once. Just tonight. What more could they do to me, anyways? Kill me?

At that point, that might actually be a better fate than seemingly infinite detainment.

I made my way down the hall, pickpocketing guard on the way. Swiftly and smoothly. I unlocked the door to her room and found everyone sound asleep.

I picked her out of the sleeping masses and gently nudged her arm. Addy mumbled some resistance, then her eyes fluttered open. I smiled and put a finger to my mouth in a "shh" motion. Instead of nodding or otherwise acknowledging that, she rose up quickly and wrapped her arms around my neck so tight I thought she might suffocate me.

"I love you," she said.

I held her close. Just for tonight.

**A/N:** Yeah, these were short. I'm on vacation until Saturday and writing these on the text editor on my iPhone and uploading them on my friends' computer so I don't have a lot of time to get write/edit/etc. them. But I'll update often if they're short, if it doesn't feel cheap! If it does, let me know and I'll just go back to the longer chapters until I'm back from vacation. Have a great week everybody :)


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**Robert, August 2016**

My pace quickened with every step down the tiled hallway. I'm sure Addy has already seen the news but I wanted to talk to her about it anyway-and to fill her in if she _hasn't_ already seen it.

UEO. United Earth Oceans Organization. _seaQuest_ needing a new Captain. All the things I normally would have talked to my father about, but now only with Addy. She's the only one I talk to about a lot of things lately. It's always kind of been like that, though, just now we're all we have. The crew, I mean. There's the occasional out-sourced worker but for the most part I think it's just us and the government's—the UEO's, I mean—security detail.

Five years. We've been here for _five_ years. Every day it seems like they may let us out, but the longer we're here, the longer I realize it may never happen. Although things have gone from imprisonment to some semblance of relative freedom, it's clear we're not going anywhere anytime soon. We were involved in too high a project, in too deep to get out. We knew too much, even the cooks.

Five years and no contact with anyone who's not already here. No phone calls to parents or family or any lovers left behind. I could only imagine what they must have told our loved ones... and I often tried not to. They probably deemed us missing in action, or worse, dead. Or maybe just on a top secret project somewhere.

When I got to Addy's door, I only paused a moment before entering and found her eating breakfast at their dining table.

She looked up at me and smiled, "You're dropping by early."

"Have you watched the news today?"

Addy nodded. "Can't wait to see how long the UEO will hold up. Seems kind of crazy if you ask me."

Then it occurred to me, something I hadn't thought of before. "If the countries they were worried about starting war with us over Achilles are part of that treaty then..."

Her eyes lit up, and I immediately regretted giving her the hope that we might finally get to go home. Especially with something that had such a low chance of actually happening.

"Do you really think so?" she asked.

"I don't know, maybe," I told her. "Worth a shot."

Just then a knock came at her door. I went over to open it and found the Captain standing there, about to knock again. "Ah, Lieutenant, I was hoping I would find you here."

I straightened up and saluted. "Sir."

"At ease, I came to tell you what the formation of the UEO means for us, not to run drills."

I turned to Addy, who was smiling and clearly anxious to hear the good news. I was trying not to let myself get too excited because I knew all too well how terrible news could be disguised as a celebration.

"Do we get to go home?" I asked him.

"Not to the one you want, Lieutenant," he said, trying not to sound too disappointing. "They still want us out of the way, new governing body or not."

Addy, on the other hand, couldn't-or wouldn't-mask her disappointment. "So what now?"

Matthews turned to me and said, "The whole crew is being moved to a new underwater colony under UEO control and deep within our own waters. New jobs, new lives."

"But still prisoners," Addy pointed out. Over the years, I've stopped worrying about what she says to him and how. None of it matters anymore, anyways.

"For the time being, I supposed," he admitted. "But we'll all get to live our lives rather than stay stuck here. I'd say that's at least a step in the right direction."

"For now, maybe," Addy said.

"Yeah," I agreed. But honestly, I still wished things could have happened differently.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**Addy, August 2016**

Robert and I were settling in nicely to our new apartment in the underwater colony. By now, our secret relationship was out and there was no need to hide it anymore. Moreover, they didn't care who moved in with whom- it was one of the freedoms we had.

I was assigned a job in another lab, working on some small, seemingly pointless project. Once again teamed with Charlie, we worked on whatever they gave us, if only just to pass the time. Robert was assigned to security, headed up by Captain Matthews. Not that anyone here would do anything to hurt anybody from the _Achilles _crew but... again, just something to do.

I passed through the main entrance to the lab building juggling a tray of coffees and paperwork I'd brought home with me the night before. Handing off one to the secretary (provided by the UEO to keep an eye on us), I entered my lab and gave one of the others to Charlie.

"Thanks," he said, grabbing it but not looking up from his microscope. He placed it on the table beside him and went back to taking notes with the hand no longer holding coffee.

"'Morning to you, too," I said. "How are the slides?"

He leaned back and sighed. "Same as always. Cloudy."

"We'll have to change the solution again."

Charlie took a sip of his coffee, set it back on the table as stood up. "Back to the drawing board, then?"

"Tomorrow," I said, waving him off. "Not like it's going anywhere."

"True," Charlie said.

"So how's Jenny?" I asked him with a grin.

I thought he was going to try playing it off at first but then he just grinned right back at me. "Good, I'm seeing her tonight."

"Great! I knew you guys would hit it off!"

He nodded. "Thanks for finally setting us up. I like her a lot. I just hope everything works out."

"It will!"

"What about you and Robert?" he asked. "I mean, now that we're sort back to 'normal life'... whatever that is."

I shrugged. "We haven't really talked about it." Which wasn't a lie, not really. We still planned on getting married eventually but with everything going on... It still wasn't in the cards at the moment.

"Just invite me to the wedding, whenever it is. Even if I'm 80 when it happens."

"Ha-ha."

* * *

A few hours later found me sitting in the living room of the apartment with the outer wall turned to the position that allowed you to see the ocean. I sat in our large, comfy deep red chair with my arms wrapped around my knees, allowing the chair to envelop me.

Why _were_ Robert and I waiting? I mean, yeah, sure, we're just settling in here and we might be at this colony for another five years. And sure, who knows what's next? But if the only thing we're sure about is that we're not sure about anything, what does that change?

Nothing, that's what.

A fish swam by, catching my attention. It sure seemed to know where it wanted to go. Where did _I _want to go?

Home, with Robert. I wanted to go to Bridger's Island, meet his parents and get married. I wanted to settle down at some cushy science job, run my own lab, have kids; not play this dumb top-secret military project game anymore.

But wasn't that the life the UEO was trying to provide for us by keeping us here? Sure, we could get jobs, live normally, have kids and build families but it just wasn't the same. We couldn't leave, not even for a vacation. Not even for a weekend. And why? All because we were involved in some super secret project they have to keep all hush-hush because _supposedly_ the secret _almost_ getting out almost caused WWIII.

Maybe they couldn't find the leak, but was it fair to keep the whole crew confined and isolated because of the actions of a single person? Surely after _five years_ they knew who did it, didn't they?

I shook my head and let it fall to rest on my knees. After a few moments and a couple deep, settling breaths, I shifted it to lay on them like a pillow, so I could see the ocean again.

So what now?

Give up all hope of getting out of here, of going home, and not make the normal plunges in life? Or just go for it and tell Robert that I wanted to get married regardless? It's not like marriage wasn't ever _not_ an option. But here?

The door to our apartment opened suddenly and it startled me enough to jump out of the chair and turn towards it. "It's just me, Addy."

I let out the breath I didn't realize I was holding. "Sorry. I was uh… deep in thought. You scared me."

Robert dropped what he was carrying onto the table in the kitchen, went into the bedroom to drop off his uniform top and then came back out to me. I welcomed the kiss as his arms wrapped around me. "I missed you," I told him.

"You too," he said. But when he pulled his head back to get a look at me, his eyebrows raised. "What's wrong?"

I shook my head. "Nothing. Like I said, you just startled me is all."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," I shrugged.

"What had you so deep in thought that you weren't focusing on anything else?" he smiled.

I smiled back. "Us." I tried to keep the big questions I kept asking myself from reaching my lips. I knew I'd just be rocking the boat for no reason if I asked, that it was all in my head.

"Oh yeah?" he asked. "I've been thinking a lot about that, too."

My breath caught. _No, he's going to end it. He's thought about it just like I have. Same questions, same outcomes_. My heart sank. I let my arms fall off of his shoulders.

He didn't seem to notice though, since he was too busy fishing around his pants pocket for something. I looked off to the side, trying not to look defeated. It was probably some lease paper tied to the apartment. Why did I listen to Charlie?

'Cause he's a love-sick kid with a too-cute face, that's why. Because he's practically my little brother.

"You see, I've been thinking about us and where we are right now," he said, still fumbling in his pocket.

"Yeah, me too," I said. "I know this colony is—"

"And I think this is the best we're going to get, accommodation-wise, for a while."

"I don't—"

"And I know things haven't been that great lately but I really think we could make a life for ourselves here, despite everything we've been through."

That stopped me short. My eyebrows furrowed. "What?" I stared at him for a moment, waiting for an answer.

That's when he pulled the velvet box out of his pocket, opened it to face me and held it up, "Marry me, Addison?"

I continued staring at him for a few good long moments. "Are you serious?" I finally asked.

"Yes," he said, inching the box closer to my hands.

I picked it up and held it, looking at the beautiful ring inside. Silver with small diamonds scattered at random along the band, with a circular-style cut for the diamond on top. _Holy. Crap. Where did he _get_ this down here? Did Captain Matthews have to pull a few strings?_

I laughed out loud, the tension from before bubbling over and falling away. "Oh my God, I am so dumb."

"Excuse me?" It was his turn to be confused.

I held my hand out to him. "No, no! Don't! It's not what you think!" I managed to get out through all the chuckles. "Yes, I'll marry you, Robert. I just… I was thinking before, well, actually, I wasn't thinking at all. Oh my God."

"So," he asked slowly, "that's a yes?"

"Yes," I said, kissing him deeply. I pulled back, "It's beautiful." My face must have looked ridiculous with the smile I could feel there. So wide and full. It was reflected on his face, too.

_Addy Bridger. Addison Emily Bridger_.

I could live with that.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 13**

**Robert, September 2018**

For a while it didn't seem to matter that we were stuck on this colony, or that Addy and I were engaged but couldn't tell our family. For a while, no one questioned it. But a few years later, Addy and I got annoyed. I argued with Captain Matthews about not being able to even _tell_ our parents—not _see_ them or go to them, but just to _talk_ to them. He kept waving us off, saying that it'd be impossible.

That's when it finally sunk in. Everyone here held on to some mad hope that maybe, just maybe, the UEO had gone and pronounced us all simply missing in action and left our families with _something_. But Captain Matthews' inability or unwillingness to help Addy and I confirmed it after almost eight years: they listed us—_all _of us—as killed in action. Dead. No further details, no hope for return.

Dead.

That's when I turned to Charlie. I didn't tell Addy what I was up to, or explain why the two of us started hanging around each other a lot more. You see, I've always gotten along with Charlie and over the years since the project was shut down, we've gotten to be close friends. But onboard the _Achilles_, I was always too wrapped up in some military thing to ever really get to know him.

Now, however, I had him looking into some secret things for me.

I knew the security here was tight, but Charlie knew some people who worked IT back on _Achilles_ who might possibly know how to get around it. I wasn't trying to break out of here or anything because that would be completely too difficult. I just wanted to send a message. Nothing else. Just a video—or even email—to tell Dad… anything, really. Initially I wanted to tell him about Addy and I, but since discovering the truth of my official military "status", that seemed insufficient. I should tell him everything. Anything I could get my hands on, I wanted to tell him.

The _Achilles_. This colony. Addy and I getting engaged, and our wedding planned for a few months from now. I just wanted to tell him.

It took Charlie's contacts a while to get anywhere and then get back to him, but finally he came to tell me the good news. "Just make a video message and give it to me. We'll take care of the rest."

It seemed too simple, too obvious. Way too easy. But I went for it anyway.

I sat in front of our Vid-Link terminal in our apartment, trying to decide what to say. I knew that once I recorded the message, I'd only have seconds to save it to a drive and delete it from the terminal's memory bank before it stayed in the logs forever.

I took a deep breath, and hit the record button. "Hey Dad," I waved, then frowned. "I know what you're thinking, and I'm sorry. The UEO or whoever came to you, they lied to you, Dad. I'm alive," I smiled, "and engaged. I meant to tell you about her the last time we talked when I was still onboard that ship. But now…" I looked down for a second, finding the words, then back up at the screen, "now I'm on an underwater colony designed to hold the entire living crew from the _Achilles_—the ship I was on. We were conducting research for a top secret project. Word about it got out, and then there was an accident." I left out the part about the accident still giving me nightmares. "They shut us down, isolated us and we're still here. We can't leave and no one else can come in. We can't even send messages to our family or friends. But I'm breaking the rules… I wanted to tell you about Addy and I, and about what really happened. My friend, he's helping me send this to you. I may get court-martialed if any of this gets found out but what else can they do to me?" I shook my head. "Nothing, that's what. I'm stuck here either way. It's prison enough."

I paused. I didn't know what else to say. "I love you and Mom, Dad. I hope this gets to you, and that you don't hate me. None of this was my idea. Well, except marrying Addy. I love her. I think you two would get along just fine." I smiled. "I hope I get to see you soon. Until then," I said, and waved again.

I cut the recording, saved the file to a drive, and then deleted it from my terminal.

It was worth the risk.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

**Addy, September 2018**

We were eating dinner when it happened. Our locked front door burst open, and Robert was up in an instant. It was Captain Matthews with a single armed MP Officer at his side.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Lieutenant?" he demanded of Robert. He was in his face now.

"Captain—"

"Stay out of this Addy," Robert said to me, then turned his attention to Matthews. "To what are you referring to, sir?"

"You know _damn well_ what I'm talking about."

"I needed to send something to him, he thinks I'm dead!"

"Send something to who?" I asked.

"And to bring civilians in on this," Captain Matthews continued, shaking his head. "I can't protect you forever."

"I didn't expect you to, sir."

"Civilians?" I asked. That was when Charlie and a member of the former IT crew on the _Achilles_ were also escorted into our quarters. "Charlie?"

He gave a short wave, but looked guilty as all hell. Momma-bear stepped in then. "Captain, I demand to know what's going on and why you're manhandling my crewman!"

Captain Matthews looked to me, glared, actually, and said, "He's your assistant, but you're all my crew."

"With all due respect, sir," Robert started to say, but I cut him off.

Finishing for him since I knew the words would be less disrespectful from my mouth, I said, "You haven't had a crew in five years. Not a real one."

"Contacting anyone outside this colony is forbidden for a reason," Matthews said, addressing us all. "You should all be lucky I caught wind of this before anyone else above me did. I won't report you but you have better have had a damned good reason." His glare ended pointedly on Robert.

"They think I'm dead, Captain," he said gravely. "I can't let them think that."

Matthews shook his head, like there was something he wanted to tell Robert but couldn't. After some obvious deliberation, he said, "Your father does. Carol Bridger passed away some time ago, and your father wouldn't have received your message in time to be saved anyway. He's captaining the _seaQuest_."

I remember Robert telling me about his father's dream sub, how he wanted so badly to see it finished. But I thought his father was done with that stuff, the military, I mean. That he was a man of science now. And his mother…

Robert's face fell when he realized what the Captain had said, and I reached out for him. "Robert…" I took his hand, fearing any other action in front of the Captain right now would not be accepted.

He grabbed it and held tightly, looking up to the Captain long enough to say, "Unless there is a punishment you're about to hand to me, I'd like to be alone now, sir."

"Just don't try it again," Matthews said. "I'm trying to protect the members of this crew the best I can but when you people go and try things like this…"

"Like what?" I asked. "Talking to our _family_?"

"Addy," Robert warned, but it was already too late.

"No, you know what?" I said, taking a step toward Matthews. "You come in here, threaten Robert just to turn away, drag _my_ science crew member in here, say he's not mine, and then still lay claim to all of us? Here's something for you, Captain: you're the reason we're still here in the first place!"

My voice rose with every word. "_You're_ the one who was underreporting our advancements with the project, _you're_ the one who was hiding things from the UEO! Regardless of what they were going to use it for, _you_ were the one that kept it going for so long! We could have gone home eight months into the damned project, but where are we now?"

I took another step toward him, daring retaliation. "You can't waltz in here like this, _Captain_. The _Achilles_ was your responsibility, and look at where we are. Sure, it's life but it's not _the_ life we could have had—no, _should_ have had—if your _ego_ didn't get in the way!"

Captain Matthews looked me directly in the eye for a few long moments of silence. I could tell Robert was furious, but I couldn't decide at who it was directed. "Finished, Doctor?"

"No," I said, taking one last step. "You kept Robert's mother's death a secret for God knows how long. How many of the rest of us have lost someone and don't know? Who are you to decide just how disconnected we are to be? Can't we at least look _in_ on the world we're missing out on?"

"Even if I reported progress on the _Achilles_ mobius hole project accurately, it wouldn't have ended in the crew's best interest," he said.

"How so?" I challenged.

"It just wouldn't have. I knew things I shouldn't have known, and I made decisions accordingly"

"You played God," Charlie said quietly from behind Matthews.

"No," he said. "I was looking out for my crew the best I knew how. But this was never supposed to happen. This _imprisonment_ was never part of it," he looked at me, "ever. And I'm incredibly sorry that this has happened. I'm doing my best to get us out of here but when stunts like _this_," he pointed at Robert and I's vidscreen, "keep getting pulled, I can't protect you."

"Implying that other people have also tried to do the same thing," Robert said. "Am I right, sir?"

He nodded. "Just don't do it again. Come to me and I will see what I can do. I can get you information but sending messages to your family is not the right idea, even if it seems like it is. These are dangerous times we are living in now, and the remnants of this crew are not looked highly upon by those who knew what we were doing. That's why we're here."

"Imprisoned," Charlie whispered, as if to finish the Captain's sentence.

"More like protective custody," Matthews pointed out.

"Some protection," I said. "All someone has to do is jam a shuttle through that window," I pointed at the far, sea-facing wall.

Captain Matthews all but shrugged his response.

* * *

Twenty more minutes of rules and regulations passed before Captain Matthews and the others finally left. I showed them to the door and locked it, turning back to face Robert who was staring out through our window at the open ocean.

I came up behind him, placing my hands on his shoulders. "It's going to be okay."

"He's somewhere out there," he said, monotone, almost spacing out.

"Maybe he'll find us," I reassured him. "One day, he could just show up here."

Robert sighed. "We don't even know where 'here' is, Addy."

"Well," I said. "It's somewhere. And it's on Earth, in an ocean, at a reasonable depth. Somewhere at a depth subs can get to. There's a good chance he'll float on by one day, and we'll get rescued."

"Some sight that'll be," he said. "Dad rushes in to save the day on his dream sub, to save his son, daughter-in-law and the rest of a crew that worked on a submarine twenty years ahead of the _seaQuest_." He chuckled. "I can't wait to watch the irony unfold."

"He'll be so proud of you," I told him.

He turned to me, disbelieving. "Will he, though? Guess that depends on how the project was going to be used and if he knows the truth, now, doesn't it? About the only thing I think I've done right in the last eight years was asking you to marry me."

I didn't know what to tell him.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

**Robert, October 2018**

I managed, despite Captain Matthews' warnings, to make one last attempt to reach the rest of the world—but I kept Charlie and Addy out of it. It was enough to keep getting myself in trouble, never mind them. She'd be pissed, though, if she knew. Then again, maybe not. This was nothing like sending messages to my dad or including Charlie in anything illegal.

I spent hours a day looking at the final schematics for _seaQuest_, comparing and contrasting her to the _Achilles_. She was sleeker, more adapt for undersea movement but _Achilles_ had to be square enough to surface and double as a mini-aircraft carrier if needed. I supposed that was the biggest difference between them. _Achilles_ was a dual-purpose ship, with the ability to transform in minutes from surface-dwelling to undersea technological wonder. But the _seaQuest_… her bioskin looked amazing. I'm not a science guy, so I probably don't appreciate the full wonder of it, but I can only imagine…

Put bioskin on the _Achilles_, slim it up; the two subs together would be the best technology mankind has come up with in all of history.

You know, if the _Achilles_ still existed anyway. They told us it was destroyed in the accident, but if Matthews was willing to lie about everything else, why not that, too? Which got me thinking. One day, when the world's leaders privy to the mobius hole project have forgotten about it, will we be allowed to go back? I didn't mind working on the _Achilles_ when nothing crazy was going on, when our lives weren't constantly endangered by choice. But the thought of combining _seaQuest_'s bioskin with the _Achilles_' systems into one sub was just too much to keep to myself.

So I showed Addy that night, and all she could do was stare at the schematics, mouth hung open in amazement as she contemplated what I'd spent days doing. "So?" I asked after almost twenty minutes of silence.

"It's amazing." She looked to me. "Your father designed this?"

"It's a bit different from his original plans," I told her. "But what they changed… I mean, look at it!"

"And you want to combine this with the _Achilles_… The world isn't ready for that, Robert," she laughed, but not jokingly.

I was serious. "They weren't ready for the mobius holes either, and the UEO did that."

"No," she corrected me. "The U.S. government did that."

I shrugged. "Whatever. Same difference to me."

Addy nodded. "Seeing as we never had any experience with them other than this," she gestured toward the ceiling, "place, I must say I agree."

I sat back in my chair. "Oh Addy."

She put a hand on my arm, rubbing it. "I know. I don't want to be stuck here anymore, either."

I pulled her close, resting my head on top of hers. "We're getting married soon, though."

I felt a smile grow on her face, wide and full. "Yes we are. I love you."

"I love you, too."

* * *

"But can't we just get transferred there or something?" I asked Captain Matthews. He was basically our liaison between the crew and whoever was running his colony—and ultimately to the UEO as well. I guess that's how he knew about Mom and everything else. So why not help his crew by telling them everything, rather than bits and pieces?

"No," the Captain told me. "Even if it were possible, _seaQuest_ doesn't need another Lieutenant, and given your relationship to her Captain, I doubt the UEO would let it happen."

"Are you _serious_?" I asked him. "No, of course you are," I backtracked. "Addy is one of the best scientists you guys have, Charlie is a great assistant and he's learning a lot, and almost every single person _on_ this crew could easily qualify for those positions."

"_seaQuest_ _has_ a crew already," Matthews pointed out. "And your little three-person family just isn't going to make the cut to get there. Not right now. They have a full compliment."

"How do you know all of this?" I asked him directly. "You claim we're all isolated here and yet, despite your position, you seem to _not_ be so isolated. How is that fair?"

"Stop sounding like a child," he said. "All's fair in war."

"We're at war?"

"We almost were, and this is the consequence."

"We were following orders!" I shouted. I never had a temper like this before the _Achilles_, but these stonewall techniques and red tape were enough to bring it out in me. There was no need for this frustration, and the loss of formality with the Captain over the years was starting to show through—or maybe it was Addy's way of dealing with him that was wearing off on me. I didn't care what he thought anymore.

"So follow them again now," he told me calmly, trying to cut the tension in the room. "Lay low, forget about what you're missing. The sooner this blows over, the sooner we all get to go home."

It took all my willpower not to roll my eyes. "Yes _sir_." I left.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N**: Two things. First, yeah, okay. Jumping suddenly to May 2019 is kind of a big jump. My problem is that no one really gets married in the winter. Regardless of if they're in an underwater colony (where I guess weather never matters after all...), I figured they'd want the thought of getting married when they would have upworld to count for something, and suddenly I've found them in October of 2018. Oops. The other thing with that is that I realized I'm up to 16 chapters… Granted, most are short but I have so much left to write (since I started with Bridger and Lucas rescuing Robert sometime after 2032). So, jump I did.

Second. Yeah. I've gone MIA from writing the last week or so. I've been around, lurking and reviewing mostly, but not writing. I've spent the last few days preparing for and participating in WriteOnCon, a free, online writing conference. It has been such an amazing learning experience but it will be over soon, so I should be back in full swing later this week!

Okay, that's enough authors notes for now! –mirage24

* * *

**Chapter 17**

**Addy, May 2019**

The day of Robert and I's wedding kind of crept up on us. It wasn't that we weren't excited about it but rather that with the prospect of _seaQuest_ being built on the heels of the _Achilles_, there was plenty of other things to keep us busy. But I spent the morning of the ceremony staring out at the sea through our giant apartment window.

It's kind of funny that this place has become home. It started off as a prison and yet here we all are, living out our lives, getting married, and some of us even having kids. I guess in their own weird way, the UEO _did_ attempt to take care of us. Sort of.

But I didn't come here to spend the morning brooding. Instead, I was reliving parts of my life with Robert over again in my head. We met when he was fresh out of the Academy, when they were pulling people for various reasons to an unknown project we later learned was _Achilles_. I thought, _There's no way he'll fall for me!_, and played his interest off like a child in middle school. But the more we hung out, the more the feelings grew and suddenly my insecurity at being a child prodigy and having a Doctorate at such a young age was thrown out the window. Was it really happening that a military soldier was falling for smarty-pants, no-holds-bar me?

_Yep_.

I smiled. _Best decision ever_.

Charlie eventually came to pick me up, and he walked me down the aisle. I had no one else here that I was this close to, and though he was more suited to be Robert's best man than anything else, I insisted Charlie walk with me before standing beside my fiancée.

The absence of my own father and that of Robert's did not go unnoticed, and I missed seeing my siblings and mother there as well. But all of it faded when I saw Robert standing there, waiting for me at the end of the aisle. I watched his eyes run over my white dress, probably laughing his ass off at the thought of me in it. It's not that I had an issue with dresses, it was the _color_. White lab coats were one thing… white dresses were just impractical.

But that's fine. He was the better looking of the two of us, anyway. I've seen him in his dress uniform before, but today, it took my breath away.

I'm about to marry Robert Bridger. I will be Mrs. Robert Bridger.

I smiled impossibly wider at the thought, and walked faster towards my groom.

* * *

We didn't get a honeymoon—not a real one. But we got a week off of work to spend inside of our apartment with nothing or no one to bother us except ourselves. We had fun, we joked, we made love, we further schemed to pit the _seaQuest_ and _Achilles_ against each other and then continued to wonder what it would be like to combine them. By the end of the week, we'd devised a rough sketch of what it'd look like, and named the fictional sub _Medusa_: scary as all hell but slick enough to fit it—she wouldn't bite you unless you provoked her. Or, you know, looked at her.

"Okay, the name needs work," I admitted, still looking over the plans.

"And so does my artwork, but you don't see me complaining," Robert smiled, pointing at his blueprints and sketches.

I nodded. "True, but just remember you're the one that said it first!"

"Oh shh," he said, scooting closer to me to push me off the bench.

Right. Two could play at that game. On his next scoot, I stood before he connected and in his enthusiastic attempt to push me off, he fell off the bench when my body was no longer there. I laughed out loud, pointing at him, "Try better next time!"

Just then there was a knock at the door. "Aren't we still on vacation?" Robert asked me.

"Yeah," I said, going to the door.

"Just don't answer it," he said. "If it's important, they'll come in regardless."

"Exactly." I peered through the peep hole and groaned when I saw Captain Matthews. "_Seriously_!"

"What?" Robert asked me.

"His highness is at the door."

Robert headed toward me. "I'll get it, hide the _Medusa_ sketches."

I nodded and ran to the table, collecting them and throwing them in a kitchen drawer. Matthews didn't need to know that we were secretly planning—even if it was half-jokingly—the next major sub the UEO could roll out.

Robert opened the door for him and I stood at the island in the kitchen, smiling despite my clear distaste for the man.

"Mr. and Mrs. Bridger," he greeted us, shutting the door behind him.

"We're on honeymoon for another two days," I pointed out.

"I know," he said, "That's why I wanted to ask you two this now, off the record."

I rolled my eyes and Robert glared at me in return for it. _More hidden agendas_, I willed to him in my thoughts, though I knew he wouldn't hear it.

"What can we do for you, sir?"

Well wasn't Robert just being super pleasant. He sent me a look that said he got _that_ second thought about him loud and clear, his look saying, _I just want him out of here so we can be alone again_.

"Are you aware that your science team is exploring mobius hole technology again?" Matthews asked us.

I felt my eyebrows raise in confusion. Clearly the question was directed at me, being on the senior staff for Science. "Why don't you ask the person who _actually_ runs the Science Department now?"

"I meant the old crew, _your_ team from the _Achilles_."

I looked to Robert, who shrugged behind Matthews' back. Looking back to the Captain, I said, "Nope. That's news to me."

"Well they are," he said. "Keep an eye on it?"

"I will when Robert and I go back to work but to be honest sir," I said, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Just," he said, clearly frustrated. "Keep it under control, Doctor." And with that he left.

When Robert shut the door, he turned to me and said, "Right," very slowly.

"I really don't have any idea what he's talking about, Robert."

"And I believe you, because if you'd know, Charlie would also know, and he would probably tell me. And you would, too."

I nodded. "Right."

_Weird_.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

**Robert, May 2019**

After our run in with the Captain, I got curious. Why would part of the old science team be looking into wormholes again when that was the very thing that landed us here in the first place? The more I thought about it, the less it made sense… unless you underestimated just how bored one could get down here.

I decided after a few days to go see Charlie and see if he knew anything. When I went to the lab to find him, he was just sitting there in front of one of the many computers. I went up behind him, but the movements and sounds were lost on him as he was enveloped in his work.

"What are you up to?" I finally asked him, making my presence known.

He jumped, startled by the sudden, unexpected noise. Closing down whatever program he had open with a single motion, he turned to me and said, "Nothing."

I pointed to the screen. "It didn't look like 'nothing'."

"Please just forget you saw it," he said, but it was close to pleading.

Pulling up a chair to sit beside him, I said, "I know about the project, how some of the crew are trying to restore it. I just don't understand why."

Charlie looked like he was going to ask how I knew, but came up short. Did he really need to ask? "Matthews?" he guessed.

"Guy watches us like a hawk," I said.

Charlie rolled his eyes, spun his chair back around and pulled up the program. "We're working on it on a super secure, totally separate and contained server network. Everything was destroyed with the _Achilles_, so we have to rebuild it from scratch—which sucks, as you can imagine. We haven't gotten that far yet."

"But why?" I asked him. "It's not like you can use it here."

"Because," he said, "don't you see? If used _correctly_ this technology is invaluable. That and we were bored, and this is a challenge that will take many years to complete."

I shook my head. This was crazy, and if Matthews really found out who was involved… I mean, then again, what's the worst that can happen? We're already _here_. "Just play it safe, okay? Captain Matthews is onto you guys."

"Just don't tell Addy," Charlie said.

I glared at him. "Seriously?" As if I wouldn't.

"Fine. Just be there when she comes to kill me."

But that's not exactly what happened. I told Addy about it, and she was actually _interested_ in it as well. I mean, yeah, sure, all of our experiences with the technology screamed, "_This is dangerous, don't do it, stay away_!" but I guess a lot of things become a lot less terrifying after almost ten years of imprisonment.

Yeah, I didn't believe it. In fact, I knew Addy wasn't in on it just for the hell of it, either. Addy was half watching over Charlie and half making sure the project didn't become what it was before. She knew I wasn't happy about it, and she knew that _I_ knew it was only a matter of time before Captain Matthews came to us again—only this time, Addy would be involved.

I stayed as far away from it as possible. The way I saw it now was the same way I saw it back then. Technological advancements aside, mobius holes were dangerous. I knew we got lucky on the _Achilles_. Looking back on it, especially now, things could have ended much worse. For starters, we were damn _lucky_ that when the hole grew unstable, it didn't suck us into a time vortex the size of the sun. Secondly, we're lucky we weren't ripped apart, or that more of us didn't lose our lives.

Instead, we got imprisoned. Which I guess was pretty much the same thing.

Yeah, I was still harping on that. Or rather, started to do it again after finding out what Charlie and his group were doing. I just… didn't like it. And the fact that they were able to basically keep it a secret seemed way too easy.

_Way_ too easy.

And so when Matthews showed up again, I wasn't surprised. "Tell them to stop," he said to me.

I laughed. "They won't listen to me."

"Addy's your _wife_," he insisted.

"She's always had a mind of her own, though," and that wasn't untrue. "What harm are they causing anyway?" I asked him, betraying how I really felt about it. I mean, I disliked that they were researching it again, that they were trying to rebuild the technology, but from what Charlie said, they still had a long way to go. "It's not like they can make mobius holes starting tomorrow, sir. They had to rebuild all of it from scratch. In doing so, they might learn things we missed last time. As long as they're not _actually_ trying to form the holes again, it's probably—"

"You really don't understand, do you?" he asked. "The UEO _threw_ you here because of that project. There's a reason they don't want us getting into it again."

But he wouldn't, as per usual, go into that reason. He wouldn't explain or expand on that statement. Matthews was never going to trust me with that information, and so I would always think he had some secret agenda. Clearly, I was right. I just couldn't decide whose side he was _really_ on.

* * *

**2021**

I finally got my answer a few years later, though, in late 2021 when UEO officers, for the first time, flooded our little underwater colony. Suddenly it was like the _Achilles Incident_ all over again. They came in, swarming all over the place, pulling the science crew out of their apartments and dragging us all to a main hall in the center of the colony. I was brought down, as well, due to my connection to Addy and Charlie—mostly because Matthews knew I knew what they were doing.

They questioned us about the recent activity with the project, to which the answer was, "not much of anything."

It was the truth, too, since Charlie and his group had gotten as far as they could with what was available on the colony. We aren't allowed to bring in anything the UEO didn't authorize, so there's no way they could have gotten their hands on what they needed in order to get farther with their project.

They were stopped halfway through, which is why when the UEO found out about it, they were stumped.

"Lieutenant," one of their representatives said, "if you didn't open the mobius hole, then who did?"

So they finally asked the question, the _one million dollar _question, to which I responded, "_What_ mobius hole?"

I looked to Charlie, who only shrugged. "We were never able to recreate enough of the project to even _dream_ of creating our own holes."

_Then what were they talking about?_

Of course, then they told us. And that's when it became clear why they thought _we _were at fault. The mobius hole that opened, which sent a weird signal through the UEO's receivers nearly identical to the one they received the day of the _Achilles Incident_, opened in the area of _seaQuest_'s last known location. She had been missing for a few hours now, with no reason for disappearing.

They thought we were responsible, because we're the only people on this planet that should know about mobius holes. And hey, why wouldn't I keep my mouth shut and not tell my father?

"I'm not an idiot," I told Matthews, angry beyond reason. "I never told him _anything_."

"I believe you—"

"Clearly not if you're here!" I stood abruptly. "Find _seaQuest_ on your own time. I didn't tell Nathan Bridger a single thing regarding this project. It could just be a coincidence!"

But it must have been, because hours later, _seaQuest_ reappeared.

Matthews came to apologize, and I all but shut the door in his face. He pushed, though, and came back inside my apartment. Addy was at the kitchen counter, eyeing him cautiously.

He came straight up to me, looked me in the eyes, and said, "There are things you need to know about the _Achilles_."

* * *

**A/N:** I must apologize. I have been missing because of real life getting in the way. I've changed jobs, and on top of my other job, it's amounted quite a number of 12-14 hour work days, which doesn't leave much writing time. It has also been one heck of a long, stressful and hard year, and this realization has really hit me lately. Not to sound like a teenage angst story, but sh*t sucks. Still, here I am and, weeks late, here's another chapter.

Also, yeah… I skipped years mid-chapter. Bear with me, please? I felt like… it was the same over and over again. Yes, I was weaving things from canon together with this story (Carol's death, Robert getting married after disappearing, etc)—the things we knew happened—but I wanted to get to the other canon things quicker. It's just a few years time, though, and now we'll be exploring all the events that tied (or will tie, at least) _seaQuest_ with the _Achilles_ and Bridger with what will be Section Seven (see "Good Soldiers", ssn 3). Heck, we still have to catch up to Chapter 1, where Lucas is involved! :)


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

**Addy, March 2021**

Captain Matthews was going to willingly tell _us_ about the _Achilles_? All the truths we should have known along the way? I couldn't help but laugh out loud at that. After all these years, after everything, after you consider the fact that I'm just a scientist and Robert was just an MP on the boat, why tell _us_? "Like what?" I asked him.

He nodded his head at Robert, "For one, it wasn't entirely destroyed."

I could read the expression on Robert's face loud and clear: "_No_," said slowly, full and thick with sarcasm. It was no secret that the rumor amongst the crew was that the _Achilles_ was never really destroyed. I mean, that's what they told us, but they also told us we'd be out of this colony by now—along with half a dozen other lies.

Apparently Matthews also caught the sarcasm. "Lieutenant, I'd appreciate it if you'd take this seriously."

Robert straightened. "Yes sir."

"How much was salvaged, then?" I asked the Captain, still holding my ground behind the counter. Don't be fooled, either, it was as much for the Captain's benefit as it was for mine.

"Enough," he said, rubbing at his neck. He looked more stressed than I had ever seen him, even back on the _Achilles_. "Enough that when word got around to the UEO that Charlie and the others were recreating the programming for the project, they got worried. They were able to retrieve a lot of the actual machinery involved. Between what they have and what Charlie's group recreated, it wouldn't take much to recreate the full extent of what we had."

Okay. So that was some news. I came around the counter to sit on one of the stools. "That's why you became so interested."

"More like protective," he said to me. "I know it doesn't always come across that way, but that's all I've tried to do all along: protect you guys, everyone on the crew, from what the UEO and the government wanted to do with the project."

"More like ever," I mumbled, but I quickly regretted it. If what he said was true, he really tried as hard as he could have… and all I did was screw it up at every chance I got. "Captain—"

"Don't," Matthews cut me off, "I know, and there was no way to make you understand without letting you in on what was really going on the whole time."

"But that still doesn't excuse my—"

"Addison, you are one head-strong, stubborn, strong woman," he said. "You were just trying to protect Charlie and your science team, something I can't argue with. But I was trying to protect the whole crew, and I was trying to do it without letting anyone in on any part of it. I deserved every word you said."

"Then what was really going on with the _Achilles_?" Robert asked. "I noticed you were very adamant about under-reporting progress, for one."

Matthews looked to Robert. "I didn't want them to know what we could do. The plans they had for the mobius holes, what they wanted to do… I couldn't let it happen. But I couldn't figure out a way to stop all of it short of destroying the whole ship, either, much less think of a way to do so without endangering the whole crew."

"But we ended up in prison anyway," Robert pointed out.

"But you're alive and well," Matthews said. "You've been allowed to live your life generally as normal since we got here. You've gotten married, as have others. Some even have families now. Yes, you've been separated from the rest of the world, but this is no Alcatraz. _That_ was another end possibility I was worried about."

"And, let me guess," I said, "the fact that it was such a top secret program is the same reason we were put in isolation rather than an _actual_ prison."

Matthews nodded. "Yes. It was the least I could do, after already keeping the crew in the dark for so long."

"What were they planning to do with the mobius holes?" Robert asked.

The Captain shook his head. "I don't know _exactly_," he said, sitting down at our table with his fingers interlocked in front of him. "There was talk of turning them into weapons, along with basic time travel… and maybe space travel."

"How would you make that into a weapon?" Robert asked.

"Forget that," I said, making Robert look to me like I'd offended him. "Time travel is dangerous enough. One wrong move and you can erase our timeline as we know it—theoretically, at least."

"Had I known at the start of the project that that's what they were going to do with it, I wouldn't have signed up," Matthews said. "But then I wouldn't have had a chance to stop it, either."

That's when it clicked, and a sudden spark of utter rage ran through me. "You sabotaged the project." It was supposed to come out as a question, but it ended up as an icy accusation instead.

He looked me directly in the eyes when he answered, so that I could see the guilt there. "Yes."

I went to speak but a single laugh came out instead, the kind you make when you just can't quite believe what someone said, and I turned from him, my eyes rolling in disbelief. I got up, walked back by behind the counter and braced myself against it, my head facing the granite. We all knew what that meant.

The lives lost that day, they were blood stained on his hands.

Us being in prison, that was his fault.

The project being lost, another strike against him.

If he had just told the crew what was going on, if he had just let his senior crew in on it like any other decent Captain would have done…

What could have been saved?  
"I don't believe it," Robert said. "And—" He was cut off by the Captain's communicator beeping.

He picked it up, and spoke into it, "Matthews."

"Report to the Command Center," the voice ordered. "Now."

Matthews cringed. "Yes sir." He flipped the switch back into _off_ mode. "And now to answer for this," he gestured at the room.

"How will they know?" Robert asked.

Matthews pointed to his arm. "GPS tracker. They like to know where the Captain who destroyed his own ship is at all times."

"I still can't believe you _did_ that." Robert's tone was deadly serious. "All you had to do was _say_ something," he continued through gritted teeth. "All those times you came _so close_ to actually telling me, all those times I thought you were answering to some dark side of the UEO, when really you were trying to do the right thing. All you had to do was say something. To _do something_. But you kept secrets instead."

"We all have secrets to keep, Bridger," Matthews said, standing from his chair and heading for the door. "Even you, and I suggest you add this one to your list."

And there he went, back to being the distant, agenda-keeping Captain we've known for years.

After he left, Robert and I were silent, and all I could think about was that day. All I could think about was almost dying. Of Robert almost dying. Of young, innocent Charlie almost dying.

And suddenly I didn't care what his reasons were.

At least for the moment.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

**Robert, May 2022**

Captain Theodore Matthews disappeared after that. He wasn't around and no one saw him. In the year since, there hasn't been a replacement liaison between the UEO and those of us trapped here. What was once a generally carefree atmosphere reverted to how it was in our first holding area, back when Addy and Charlie shared a room with two other crew members. The mood was somber but tense, pretty stressful. That stress also came from another source, one which Addy and I weren't ready for or planning on for quite a while yet.

"Addy, come out," I said, knocking on the bathroom door.

"I'm fine," she called back; she sounded anything but.

That's when I started to jimmy open the doorknob's lock. "Addison, you've been in there for a half hour. What's wrong?"

"I can't shower?" she shot back, anger now in her voice.

"You don't shower than long, and no water ran for a bath." It was all matter-of-fact. To the point. I just wanted her to open the damn door, already knowing exactly what she'd been doing in there. Now I just wanted to find out the result. "Addy, please."

She threw open the door and threw the tests at me—all three of them. She was crying, her eyes red and puffy, just like the rest of her face. "Happy now?"

I feared the worst and looked to the tests. _Positive. Positive. Positive_. Then why was she crying? I looked up to her. I didn't get it. "What's wrong?"

"You better hope those are false positives," was all she said before shouldering past me, headed for the kitchen.

I stood there kind of dumbfounded by it for a few moments, before her rummaging had me nervous. I dropped the tests on the floor and went after her.

"Addy," I called.

"Rhymes with _Daddy_, doesn't it?" she called back, mocking me. I watched her break open a chocolate bar and start eating, holding it like it was a lifeline.

"Addy," I said, deciding to go from failing to comfort her to going for the truth, "I'm a guy and I'm confused." I pointed behind me, "Those tests say good things, don't they?"

"Oh," she said, her mouth still around the chocolate bar, "of course _you'd_ be happy about it." She sat herself on the counter with an _oof_.

I came to stand in front of her and ripped the bar from her hand. "What. Is. Wrong?"

"I. Don't. Want. To. Raise. A. Kid. Here," she responded back, still mocking me, head rocking side to side with each word. The look I gave her at that made her roll her eyes and give up. "I won't do it, Robert. I _can't_. Not after everything." She gestured to her stomach, "Besides, as soon as this is confirmed, I can't work anymore," then gestured in the vague direction of the labs. "What the hell am I supposed to do with myself in this hole?"

I blinked, my only reaction. I honestly hadn't thought about that, about having to raise a child here. All I could ever think about was raising one with _Addy_, no matter _where_ we were. That's all. "Everything will be alright."

"They killed the Captain!" she said. "What's to keep them from doing the same to us—even when we have kids! How long until they don't want to deal with keeping us here, Robert? What then? And it's not like they have real schools here, or playgrounds… no green grass—not _real_ grass, anyways. I don't want to raise a kid on artificial sunlight and AstroTurf."

She was trying not to cry as she said it, but the attempts failed and it broke my heart. "Well, first thing's first," I said, giving her back her chocolate bar. "Second, we go to MedBay and get this confirmed. Then we decide what to do."

Addy grabbed my arm. "I'm not getting rid of it."

"I didn't say we would."

"But I don't want to raise a child here."

"I know."

She looked at me expectantly.

Then I realized what she wanted. "Let's go see a doctor first, okay? Then we'll figure out the rest."

Well, we did that. Dr. Adams confirmed what we already knew, and Addy spent the rest of the day in a weird funk. She didn't talk much, far too enveloped in her own thoughts. But now she was sleeping soundly with an arm around me and her head on my chest.

I sat there wide awake, staring at the ceiling with one arm around her and the other above my head. Just staring, that's all. Well, staring and thinking. Earlier, when she looked at me, Addy wanted me to tell her that I could get us out of here. That I could take her somewhere safe and normal to raise this child and get on with the life we more than deserved. But I didn't know how. Then I was thinking about Addy, about our child and our life here; about Dad; about the _seaQuest _and the _Achilles_; about Captain Matthews and what happened to him.

But most importantly, I was thinking how this was playing out… not quite like a nightmare because it wasn't _terrible_… but everything just seemed so surreal. Like this couldn't be happening; not to me, not to Addy, not to any of us. But it was. And there wasn't anything I could do to change that.

The last shock of the week came when I was taken down to the Command Center for the first time, Addy nearly shrieking at the guards as they escorted me out of our apartment. We both thought that I was going to be going the same way as Matthews, that I was going to "disappear", too, leaving my pregnant wife behind to raise our child alone in a place she associated with hell.

So it was a huge surprise when they told me why I was really there: _seaQuest_ had gone missing again.

Three weeks ago.

With another anomalous reading associated with it.

Oh, and we were being reassembled on a new ship, _Achilles II_. Everyone. The whole crew.

Except Addy. And our baby.

* * *

**A/N:** **There WILL be a happy ending to all of this, I promise! Also, yes, having her pregnant now would make Michael 10 in 2032 rather than the canon 6. I figured it was close enough, and wanted to add more drama—'cause their lives aren't already stressful enough. Just remember: I promised a happy ending :) **


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

**Addy, December 2022**

I wanted to cry. And it wasn't just the pregnant hormones this time. They tried their best to send Robert home for Christmas, but I was left on Bridger's Island alone except for small group of women who came to help me take care of the place. When the rest of the crew got recalled to active duty aboard _Achilles II_, the UEO had to decide what to do with me. Bridger's Island was pretty sequestered, and although I had never gone there before all of this, Robert assured me it was safe.

He had been coming back on a rotational basis—except that that rotational basis left him at sea for Christmas and me playing with his father's old science equipment alone. I was so bored, so _lonely_ all the damned time. I knew they were monitoring my every move, too. The UEO made it clear I couldn't contact anyone on the outside. They sent by the group of women themselves, had even chosen them based on some security clearance I couldn't even begin to understand.

Occasionally, someone would drop by unannounced, and I would talk to them every now and then, but I let it be. What else could I do?

Until one time in particular, a woman I'd never seen before showed up. She hurried up the stairs to the house with quick steps and let herself in the house. I never kept it locked, assuming that the UEO had security running the place like back at the colony.

But they let her in, or they never saw her, and she let herself in. I watched her enter the house from a window on the second floor, and descended the stairs to see who the visitor might be. She must have known the Bridger's, that's for sure, but what would _she_ make of me: a pregnant woman in the house alone?

I found her in the living room, a picture frame in hand. "Hello," I said.

She jumped, the picture frame coming to her chest.

I cringed. "Sorry." I didn't _enjoy_ scaring my rare house guests. "Can I help you with something?"

"Um, who are you?" the woman asked. Her English accent startled me a little. I wasn't expecting it in combination with her fiery red hair.

"Addison," I said. "Addison Bridger. This is my house." _Sort of_.

"Bridger?" she asked. "He never mentioned a daughter." It sounded like that thought left her distraught.

I shook my head. "I'm—" I cut myself off. Was I allowed to tell her? I mean, we're all supposed to be _dead_.

_But the UEO let her through the line of security_, I told myself. _That, or she got through on her own, in which case she must know them and my secret is safe with her_.

"I'm Robert's wife," I said.

Her eyebrow rose in disbelief. "Nathan never mentioned he had a wife."

"Mr. Bridger didn't know about me. Who are you?" I asked again.

"Kristin Westphalen, Doctor," she said. "I worked with Nathan on _seaQuest_."

My eyes lit up at the submarine's name. "_seaQuest_," I echoed, then I looked back to her, "Do you know what really happened to them?"

Kristin shook her head. "I had come here hoping to find Nathan drinking coffee and all of it being a ruse."

I frowned. "I wish it wasn't true, either." I moved a few feet to my right and sat ungracefully on the couch. "Robert's gone, too, because they are."

Kristin sat down in the chair across from me. "Nathan said Robert died."

I looked off to the side. How much could I really tell her? "I can't explain everything," I started slowly, "but things… they weren't how they seemed. Robert and I were working on a project together that got shut down. Instead of letting us be, they held us and told the world we died."

She looked confused. "They why would _seaQuest_ disappearing have to do with Robert being back on active duty?"

"It's complicated," I said, feeling the sadness start again. "The project we were working on, they think it's all related. Were you and Nathan close?"

She nodded. "Very much so." But she left it at that, changing the subject to, "How far along are you?"

"Seven months," I answered, still frowning.

"Addison, don't be upset," she said. She must have really been a Doctor because her tone already had me reassured. "They'll send Robert back to you."

"Doubtful," I said. "They break their promises all the time."

"Do you know what you're having?" Kristin asked me.

I let a smile touch my lips. "A boy. Figures, huh?"

Kristin also smiled. "Just what the Bridger family needs, another headstrong male."

I laughed. I liked this Kristin. I never met either of Robert's parents but I feel that if Mr. Bridger wanted to remarry, he would have married this woman.

I looked down to my own wedding band, unable to keep the thoughts away.

"Hey," she said, coming across to my couch. "Don't think about it that way. Here, how about I make us some tea. Do you have any?"

I went to sit up, "Yes. That would be great right now. I'll go—"

She put a hand on mine. "I can get it. If Nathan was living here by himself, I'm sure it can't be that hard to find things in the kitchen, now could it?"

I smiled again. She was right.

I liked this Kristin Westphalen.

* * *

Kristin set out cups and poured tea for both of us. "You know why I'm here, may I ask what you're doing here on Bridger's Island?"

_Complicated_, I said again in my thoughts, and then again reminded myself that the UEO, for whatever reason, let Kristin through. "They, uh, disbanded the colony we were sequestered for years in order to restore the project we were working on. I was supposed to go, too, but…" I looked down at my stomach. "The project isn't safe for pregnant women and kids. I'm sure they found homes for the others, but for me, Bridger's Island was the only option."

"Do they at least let Robert visit?" she asked.

I nodded. "Every few weeks, they owe us that much." I left out the part about how the only person who even tried to look out for the two of us was probably dead, which is why they really didn't care about leaving me here. "They say this is more humane," I said, gesturing at the house, "since there's no one else using it, anyways."

Kristin didn't look happy about any of it. "They're always doing things like that," she said quickly. "And I cannot believe they lied about all of you like that."

I sighed. "That's the UEO for you."

Kristin nodded. "Don't even get me started."

"You're not particularly fond of them, either?" I asked her.

"Please, like I said, don't get me started."

"Did they send you here?" I asked. "Until now, they never let anyone here except for a small group of people. It's like the house is off-limits because if anyone sees me, their secret's out."

"No," she said, setting down her cup, "but this is the first time something hasn't _happened_ to keep me from getting here."

Of course.

This was so messed up I didn't even know what to think anymore.

Kristin exhaled loudly. "I just still cannot believe Robert is alive. I wish I could tell Nathan."

"Believe me," I said, "I wish I could, too. Robert always said his father would have figured out a way out our or situation faster than we did. He was upset that he couldn't be there at the wedding."

"I'm sure it was lovely either way," she reassured me.

"It was," I nodded, "but it would have been perfect if our families were there. I mean, we had the crew and Charlie but…"

"It just wasn't the same?" she finished for me.

"Yes."

"You've all been through a lot, haven't you?"

"You can't even imagine," I said.

Then she asked the one question I didn't think I could answer, even now. "What was the project you were working on, the one that got shut down?"

I looked at my teacup. "I can't."

"That secret?" she asked me.

"Yes," I said, shifting in my seat. "And dangerous."

"Dangerous how?" Kristin asked, genuinely.

I looked at her. "The kind of dangerous that can rip apart space and time."

I was hoping she wouldn't believe me.

* * *

**A/N:** This is why I like writing without an outline. Sometimes I forget things, like what Kristin might have been doing the whole time. Sure, her and Bridger kind of parted ways after Season 1, but do you think she would have just taken "they disappeared" as an answer? No, me either.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

**Robert, January 2023**

* * *

_December 23, 2022_

_Robert,_

_ I love you and miss you always. A woman named Dr. Kristin Westphalen dropped by the house today. The UEO either likes her or considers her safe, since they let her through their invisible fence of security. I wish I could send you a video or voice call so you could meet her. She says she was close to your father on _seaQuest_, and I can definitely believe it. She says they were cautious at first, both of them still mourning the loss of their respective loved ones, but that she cared for him deeply._

_ She said she'd stay with me until the baby was born, so I wouldn't be alone. But we're both UEO "left behind's", so I intend to ask her if she wants to stay—if that's okay with you. Kristin is a scientist, too, and I could learn a lot from her. She seems to be happier here, too. How could I deny her that when I understand? You may not be missing, but you're still _missed_._

Please_ make them let you come back soon for a visit before our baby comes. He moves a lot now, especially when Kristin and I are discussing our work. Maybe we'll keep the scientists in the family for _another_ generation?_

_ I bet you smiled at that. I hope you did._

_ Smooth sailing, Robert._

_ Love always,_

_ Addy_

* * *

I saw when the email was dated and frowned. It was _Addy_ of all people; why did they feel the need to read it first? By now she knew they always did this, though, so I was hoping she didn't think I had forgotten about her. It seems like she's made a new friend, anyways.

I didn't know how I felt about that new friend. Addy made it clear that whatever relationship she and my father had after my mother's death was a close one, and not having the time to mourn her death in person, I felt anxiety in having Addy so near this Kristin Westphalen. I always wanted Addy to meet my mom. Even if Dad liked this woman and cared for her, she'd never be a replacement for Mom.

Ever.

But she was the closest thing Addy had to a friend on that Island at that moment, and so I tried to let the feeling of apprehension go. Especially after Addy told me Kristin was both a medical _and_ scientific doctor. Good, _she_ can pretend to understand why Addy loves microscopes so much _and_ be there when her water eventually breaks—in case _I_ can't be, because that's how the UEO works.

For us anyway.

I printed off the email, then deleted it, adding the paper copy to my box of all the letters we had exchanged since the _Achilles_ crew got deployed months ago.

My radio chirped and I made my way to the next briefing.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, the letters kept coming in rapid pace. The more that came, the more I wondered why the UEO was even letting me read these. They often said things like:

_ Robert, she's just like me. We get along great. She has her own ideas about what happened to _seaQuest_, and between you and me… I don't think it was a mobius hole—not from what we know about them, anyway._

And:

_ Kristin and I have been working on a few hypotheses, things that even you and I, after everything, would think weird._

But the UEO let the letters through untouched—or at least those parts untouched, which gave me enough courage to eventually send back:

_**What if you're both right? What if it wasn't a mobius hole or anything we were a part of? Even then, that wouldn't leave many other options. Except the impossible.**_

I left it unsaid, assuming Addy would figure it out. She wrote back, short and simple:

_ That's what Kristin thinks_.

That's when the UEO started censoring the emails, and I didn't talk to Addy until the week the baby was supposed to be born. Maybe there _are_ secrets more precious than the _Achilles_ and its mobius holes.

* * *

**A/N: Short, I know. I can't write and post much for the next few days (probably until Wednesday night unless I get lucky work-wise), so this is just to keep it updated :) I'm also working out how in-depth I want to get with the ending. I can write 3rd person what Lucas & Bridger were up to near the end and how they found Robert, or I can leave it to the imagination and just go for it. Guess I know what I'm thinking about at work** **tonight!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

**Addy, March 2023**

Michael Charlie Bridger was the cutest, most beautiful sight I have ever laid eyes on. I could barely set him down, never mind letting Robert or Kristin hold him. I did give in, though, and sat next to Robert, gazing at his miniature look-a-like. The little guy had my eyes, but that was about it—everything else already screamed "Bridger".

Robert was allowed to stay with us for a few weeks before he was scheduled to go back, and most of it was spent waiting for me to deliver. It seemed Michael was never going to come out and meet us, but he did. Finally.

Aside from Michael, I also couldn't get over the _awkwardness_ Robert regarded Kristin with. Sure, she'd been living with his wife for two months in his parents' house without meeting her but _come on_. It's not like I've often had a terrible judgment of character—I've usually been right!

But I did understand where he was coming from, though. I just wish he wasn't so obvious about it. Kristin was a genuine person, which, amongst other things, was a huge relief considering all the back-stabbing and secret-agenda-hiding people we've been around for the last decade.

"She treats him like a grandson, you know," I told him, smiling over at Michael.

Robert shifted his shoulders a bit, his only response.

"Give her a chance?" I asked him.

Nothing. Again. He didn't like talking about this.

"Robert, Kristin has been with me here for months," I said. "She's kept me company, told me stories and helped deliver our _son_. Regardless of anything else, you could at least treat her with the respect she deserves."

Robert sighed. "She's not my mom. She's not _his_ grandmother."

"No, she's not."

"So why does she get to act like it?"

I didn't have an answer. Not one he'd like anyways. "You know she's probably right about the _seaQuest_ and her crew though, right? I mean, why else would they start censoring our emails again?"

"We were helping them work it out," he said, agreeing. "Until we got too close."

"But even they don't know what happened, not really."

"Well, then we stumbled on another dirty little secret they didn't want us to know."

I laughed. "Aliens?"

Robert shrugged. "Kristin won't talk about it that much, will she? If something really happened and she was sworn to secrecy…"

I understood the unspoken thought. If something transpired on _seaQuest_and Kristin was keeping quiet about it, it was very likely that it was Captain Bridger who vowed secrecy of the crew… and so Kristin would keep the secret, even from his son.

"Aliens then," I said.

Robert looked to Michael. "Everyone's going crazy," he said, smiling.

Michael smiled back. We pretended it was real and not gas-induced.

The next morning was my turn to sleep in, and when I awoke, I heard voices down the hall. I climbed out of bed, wanting to also say good morning. And then I heard what Robert and Kristin were talking about.

"Your father and I cared about each other very much," Kristin said, "but know I would never dream of taking your mother's place. I could never imagine Nathan doing that for my daughter, so I wouldn't expect it for you."

"I just never got to say goodbye," he said. "It's nothing truly personal against you. It's just… I didn't even _know_ until months afterward, and then Addy was sending me letters about you and things you had said…"

"I know, Robert," she said. "I know."

"I never got to say goodbye to him, either, Doctor."

"That much we have in common, although I do so wish that it was not goodbye but more of a 'see you soon'."

"We're trying," I heard Robert say. "Not that it'll do any good if you're right."

"Even if I am," Kristin said, "it's still not necessarily a good thing."

"Care to elaborate on that?" Robert asked her.

I held my breath. That was the question I had been holding back all along. It was clear Kristin knew something she couldn't talk about, but that whatever that something was, it wasn't directly related to her hypotheses regarding _seaQuest_.

"I would," she said, "but I can't. Especially knowing it probably will not help. It's per your father's orders, if that makes it any easier."

I rolled my eyes. So we may never know.

Come April, Robert was back out to sea, leaving Kristin and I on Bridger's Island alone with Michael. We spent hours going over all of Mr. Bridger's science notes, as well as running our own experiments with his equipment there.

The UEO promised Robert and I that he would be allowed leave on a more lenient basis now, but I'm not sure how much either of us really believed it. The longer we were there, the more and more I tried to persuade Kristin to tell us what she knew.

It took years of asking but finally, in 2026, she eased up on her secrecy when it looked like no further progress had been made in finding _seaQuest_.

"We _were_ visited by aliens," Kristin told me over a cup of tea. "Well, I suppose it was more like we stumbled across them. At any rate, Nathan swore the Bridge crew and senior staff to secrecy. He knew that if the UEO found out…"

I knew what she left unsaid, since the same occurred for the _Achilles_ project. "But then why let what Robert and I were working on go? Or in the very least not tell Robert? He's high up on their chain of command, especially ever since Matthews disappeared."

Not that I still believed our work with mobius holes could solve their problem. Creating and maintaining one was only half the battle; you had to know what to do with it and where you wanted to go in order to make it worthwhile.

And as far as _I_ knew, even when we made stable ones ten years ago, we never had a particular date or location set in place, much less wanted to travel through space with it. The main goal of _Achilles_ original tour had been to simply _make_ a mobius hole, not _use_ it.

But I still couldn't tell Kristin any of this.

"That would more than likely depend on the type of project Robert and yourself were working on and how closely it ties in with the mission of finding _seaQuest_ now," she said. "Even if the UEO knew, there is no guarantee that they would tell Robert and the rest of the crew."

"It does relate, though," I told her. "I just can't tell you how."

"I told you my secret," she countered.

I sighed. "I've told you it before, actually, but you laughed it off."

"Are you referring to the time you told me the project you worked on was dangerous enough to rip apart space and time?" she asked.

I nodded. "That's essentially what the project was for, yes."

"Ripping apart space and time."

More nodding.

"And you thought my secret about _aliens_ was preposterous!" she laughed. "The UEO doesn't have technology like that."

"The UEO wasn't around when the project began, Kristin," I told her. "Our ship, _Achilles_, was outfitted with the greatest, newest technology around, with the best people in the fleet to run it."

Kristin scoffed. "Apparently not if, just a few years later, _seaQuest_ had the best crew around."

I smiled. "To be honest, I'm not sure why they recruited who they did. I was fresh out of a Doctorate program years too early, and half the soldiers on there were just kids who graduated from the Academy months beforehand. Even then, we were the best. I can't imagine ever sailing with anyone else."

"Wait until you've been with Nathan's crew," she said proudly. "We were close enough to be family. Even that Ben Krieg who ate my lobsters."

"Krieg?" the name sounded familiar, and then I realized why. "Benjamin? Robert used to always talk about a student at the Academy by that name back before all of this."

Kristin nodded with a smile. "Nathan mentioned the Lieutenant said he knew his son. Small world, I suppose."

"Yeah, small world."

* * *

**A/N:** **The next few chapters are short, but I wrote them all at once with the intention of posting them together (maybe a day apart?) so hopefully that's okay. Also, there will be a large time jump again in the next chapter. I still feel bad skipping around but we ****_are_**** covering 2011-2033 in this story so…. Yeah. We can just assume that from here until the next chapter things were "smooth" as the Macronesian Alliance picked up steam and the ****_Achilles II_**** continued to study the mobius holes and attempt to find ****_seaQuest_****.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

**Robert, June 2029**

"And your already small world is about to get just that much smaller," Admiral Lexington said, addressing the entire Navy through a single vid-link feed. "Our conflict with Macronesia has escalated, and with no inclination that the _seaQuest_ will be found anytime soon, we must rethink our plans."

To those who were on the science crew, that essentially meant they were getting to go home. Or back to the Colony. Or… somewhere other than here, which was more than likely a good thing, at least when compared to the rest of us, who were more than likely going to end up at war.

Or, _conflict_. Sorry.

I looked down to my wedding band, already dreading the phone call I was going to have to make, when Lexington delivered the rest of the news.

"But the UEO does have one thing on its side, something that will hopefully keep the Macronesian Conflict from becoming a full-out war," he paused for dramatic effect, then continued, saying a single word: "_Achilles_."

My heart dropped. I knew, I _knew_, that, originally, they wanted to use _Achilles_ as a weapon. Sure. Whatever. Matthews had said that.

But that was years ago and this is now and…

I moved my eyes to Charlie first, then to Captain Nichols, the commander of this submarine ever since it recently set sail again. He looked as displeased as the rest of his crew, but nowhere near as distressed. He hadn't been through this already like the rest of us. He wasn't worried about being thrown back into a prison colony once this was all over with, as surely that's what everyone was thinking about.

He hadn't been there when the Matthews sabotaged the _Achilles_ and the mobius hole, for lack of a better word, exploded.

I backed away from my station, slowly moving through the crowd, hoping to be unnoticed as I slipped off of the Bridge and down toward Charlie's station on the Science Deck. All of his computers were rigged like they were back in the colony, so that you could get at least one solid, _secure_ transmission out before anyone noticed it. Charlie and I had long since decided that one transmission would be sent to one, and _only one_ person, and only under dire circumstances: Addy.

I loaded up the connection and anxiously paced between Charlie's desk and the wall until she picked up.

"Robert?"

I spun on heel and pressed my face to the screen. "Addy. Listen to me. I don't have time to explain everything."

"Robert, what's wrong?" she asked, face stricken with fear.

"We're going to war. They're going to call it a conflict but dammit it's a war and they're going to use _Achilles_ the way Matthews said they would."

Her face sunk and paled all at once. I heard Kristin in the background calling for her, asking why she was suddenly so upset.

"Addy, you need to run, to get out of there," I told her. "Child or not, you _know_ they're going to take you somewhere else—somewhere different. If they're going to use _Achilles_ and the mobius holes, they're going to need everyone who was on the original project—or use all of you left behind for leverage to get us all to do it, and I will _not_ let that happen."

"But what about—"

"Have Kristin take Michael somewhere safe, Addy, then get out of there. Hold up with one of Kristin's friends, anyone, just not her. Make it _impossible_ for them to find you. Just _get out_."

"And you?" she asked, her eyes pleading with me to say this was a joke, a lie, a ruse, a false alarm. I was heartbroken to say it was anything but.

"I'm going to refuse to help, as will most of the crew. I have no idea what will happen to us afterwards," I told her.

"Robert…"

"The UEO, they don't know what they're getting into. We haven't had an accident since Matthews sabotaged us, but that's enough to show us that we know what could happen. Using it as a weapon—it could rip apart the planet and you know it. Addy, please. I love you. Get out and stay safe. Stay hidden. I _will_ come for you, Addison."

Addy looked like she believed I would come for her, but I could tell nothing else was sinking in. Just like everything else that's happened to us in the last decade, it all happened so fast, so unexpectedly and generally after some semblance of happiness.

"I'm tired of running," she finally said.

I didn't have the guts to say that this felt like it would be the last time—for better or for worse.

* * *

The crew didn't make me out to be a liar. The initial doubts spread like wildfire until most of the science crew were basically shouting their protests at using the holes as a weapon.

"Tearing apart space and time won't do anything!" they would try to explain to the military types, but we knew, we understood.

We were there, too.

I still didn't even understand _how_ they were planning to use them as a weapon in the first place. If all the holes did was open a rift in space and time, and you could possibly use it to travel… then what? Send all the Macs to the past; how would that help? Even if you sent them to another planet, how would you know _where_ to send them? It's not like we have Pluto on tap for bad guys or something.

I wished _so badly_ that Dad was around right now. More so than when I was questioning Matthews back on the _Achilles_, and definitely more than when we were stuck on the colony. This was different.

This was war.

"We were in the process of learning to isolate them, and release them on a small scale," Charlie explained to me over dinner that night. "We got pretty good at it while were you home with Addy and Michael." He smiled at the name, knowing we gave Michael his middle name after Charlie.

I put my face in my hands. I still didn't get it. "Whatever you say, Charlie."

And I never understood until they tested it on a Macronesia ship. I was on the Bridge to watch on screen when the mobius hole sucked the ship into the void.

I shook with memories of the _Achilles_ _Incident_, knowing I, too, came close to death that day.

* * *

_Addy,_

_I have no idea if you'll get this, but I'm sending it to Kristin just in case. If you followed my hastily given instructions (again, I'm sorry), then hopefully you're somewhere they can't find you but she can._

_I love you._

_We're at war despite what they say. The truth is that we tested the mobius holes as a weapon against a Mac ship and it was terrifying. All I could think about was that day, all the nightmares, everything. Addy, this has to stop, and I have no choice but to do it. Maybe I couldn't stop Matthews—he was too determined to figure things out his own way, anyway—but this time is different._

_Someone has to do something._

_Love always,_

_Robert_

* * *

**A/N: Yes, that escalated quickly. Again, part of the plan to keep things going. If that's too large a jump, let me know and I can go back and write more. I'm just so excited to get to the ending.**

**And yes, Pluto is and will always be a "full" planet to me.**


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

**Addy, September 2029**

Kristin had Robert's letter delivered to me through a mutual friend of both of them: former UEO Lieutenant Benjamin Krieg. I was living with him until I knew it was safe to move on. She and Michael were on their way to be with her daughter for a while. Kristin wasn't even sure that she could find Krieg, let alone convince him to take me in. After being so displaced from the rest of his old _seaQuest_ crew for so long, the chance was slim. But he recognized her, remembered Robert, and agreed to help.

I had a feeling this was only temporary though, and it was a bad feeling in the worst way. I was so paranoid being here, and I missed Robert and Michael immensely. Every time I left "home" it felt like someone was watching me, waiting for a moment to strike.

So eventually I stopped going anywhere. I wrote to Kristin until Ben was no longer convinced he could deliver the letters securely without alerting the UEO. She tried to send me pictures of Michael but in the end only one made it through the outdated mail system the UEO had in place.

I was lying on the couch, staring at it when they came to take me. It took them only a few months to find me, and Ben wasn't home at the time. They barged through the door, barking orders to stay still.

Instead, I stood with my hands in the air, and said, "Just take me."

It was clear at that point there was no reason to run: no amount of hiding would come in the way of the UEO when they needed all of their mobius hole experts.

The officers took me to a facility where I was kept until I could be transferred to what I assumed was _Achilles II_. Never having seen it in person, I wasn't sure until I came face to face with Robert in the Briefing Room.

His temper flared but it was only visible in his eyes and clenching fists, and it wasn't directed at me. I looked down to my feet, feeling the wrath of it, anyways. I did my best to follow what he wanted me to do, but in the end, as long as Michael was safe, it didn't seem worth it anymore. Funny how having kids will do that to you. You could die, but as long as your child is safe and being cared for, none of it mattered.

I was debriefed and led to the science labs where Charlie brought me up to speed, saddened by my presence the whole time. I embraced the kid in a hug anyway, and showed him a picture of Michael.

"He looks like a sweet kid, Addy," he told me. "I can't wait to visit him."

I smiled. "Did Robert tell you we gave him his middle name after you?"

Charlie nodded, smiling. "Yes. He's so precious."

Charlie kept going on and on about how one day we'd all be together again and he'd get to hold Michael, and all I could think about was hoping he was right. Because right now, all I saw was history repeating itself all over again.

Later that night, when Robert and I were finally alone for the first time in weeks, he asked me what happened. I wasn't convinced that the room wasn't bugged, so I led him into the bathroom and turned on the faucet, taking a seat on the edge of the counter. "Kristin was able to get me a place to stay but they found me anyway. I shouldn't have stayed with a former _seaQuest_ crewman. That was probably dumb, Robert, I'm sorry."

He put his hands on my shoulders and rubbed them gently. "No, no it's okay. I'm just glad you're okay."

"Minus being here," I gestured at the room in general.

"Where's Michael?" he asked.

"With Kristin and her daughter. I'm not a hundred percent sure where, exactly, but there's no way we wouldn't be able to get in contact with her if we needed to, so don't worry."

"Who did you stay with?"

I smiled. "An old friend of yours. Turns out you and Kristin have some other people in common besides your father."

Robert looked confused, then rolled his eyes. "No."

"Oh yes," I said. "I could see why you were friends with him back in the day. He's a nice guy. He took care of me."

"I bet he did."

I stood up and wrapped my arms around him so tight, I swear I felt his ribcage buckle. But he held fast and returned the embrace, putting a hand on the back of my head to keep me close. "It's all going to be okay."

I nodded into his shoulder. We were together now and Michael, while not here with us, was also safe.

For tonight, things were okay.

* * *

It was three weeks later when the scuttlebutt reached me. It wasn't the normal gossip, though, but more of a call to rally. Admiral Lexington was going to give the order to test Project Mobius (as they were now calling it) on another vessel. Robert stopped by on his way to bridge duty when he told me.

"Are you going to let them?" I asked him, holding onto his hand so he couldn't go.

"I can't do anything until the time comes," he answered. "Even with the support of the rest of the crew."

"I can't believe this is going to come down to mutiny." It came out as more of a whisper than a full statement.

"I can. I just can't believe it took this long," he said. "Or that we have to at all."

With that, he let go of my hand and continued on his way.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

**Robert, September-October 2029**

I stood at attention behind a station when Captain Nichols entered. His face was full of resolve for an action he hadn't set into motion yet, already ready for whatever argument he thought might happen. I tried my best not to roll my eyes in disgust. A Captain's job is to stand up for what he believes in, and if Nichols really, truly believes that this is as much a terrible idea as he's making it out to be, then he should do something.

The next few hours went by in a haze as we made our way to our rendezvous point with the Mac ship. I kept thinking to myself, _We're not even _really_ at war yet, and we're willing to do this. What if a war _actually_ starts?_ I shuddered, deciding I didn't want to think about it.

That's when the order came. "Start her up," Nichols said.

The Engineering Officer hesitated at his station. "Sir—"

"Do it or I will," Nichols told him.

I took a step in the Captain's direction but he turned on me. "Don't start."

"Captain, I have to," I said. "I'm not your XO but you need to hear me out."

"Excuse me?"

Okay, so I stepped over a few formality bounds. "Permission to speak freely, Captain?"

He waved me off. "You already are."

"These holes, they're not to be messed with or used in this way. Loss of human life in such a horrific way alone should be enough of a reason not to, never mind that each and _every_ time you open one of those things, you risk blowing us all to hell—maybe the whole Pacific included."

"I have my orders," he said, "and so do you, so stand down, soldier."

I swallowed hard, my choice already made for me. "I can't do that sir."

Dead silence overtook the Bridge, and while I stared at him, Nichols looked around at his crew, leaving the unspoken word hang in the air. He didn't move from where he stood though, as if he expected one of us to still follow through with the order.

"Would someone care to explain to me why no one is following my orders?" Nichols finally asked.

His XO, _Matthews'_ Executive Officer, stepped forward. "This isn't right."

"Owens," the Captain said, a warning.

"Sorry sir," Owens said. "Not this time."

"Is there _anyone_ on this submarine that will still follow orders?" Oh yeah, he was pissed. He turned to Communications. "Put me on shipwide," he ordered and the officer did so. "This is Captain Nichols. I've been led to believe that no one currently onboard this sub actually intends to follow through with the mission we have all been given. If you," he said slowly, "are one of those who disagrees with the current objective, convene in the Cafeteria in an hour."

_Trap_, my mind screamed, but I stayed still.

Nichols had the Communications Officer shut down the shipwide radio, then call up Admiral Lexington on a secure line to his quarters. He gave the Bridge to Owens before he left.

As soon as the doors to the Bridge shut again, Owens turned to me, extending a hand. "Thank you for doing what I couldn't years ago."

"Don't thank me yet," I said, "he's got the Admiral on his side." Not to mention he could still fire up the weapon himself so long as no one _physically_ stopped him. Arming it wasn't the dangerous part—_Michael_ could do it—it was keeping it stable that was the key.

An hour later found the entire _Achilles II_ crew in the Cafeteria, much to Captain Nichol's expected dismay. He nodded, and walked out, leaving only our confused faces behind.

It wouldn't be until almost a full month later that we understood, as we surfaced in Pearl and were escorted in handcuffs from the _Achilles_ for what was probably the last time. How did I know?

It was the Macs who claimed us, and I had a sinking feeling it was Admiral Lexington who sold us out—and why?

Did you really need to ask?

* * *

**A/N:** I put off uploading because I had lost my outline for the rest of the story AND my notes on all the issues with "Good Soldiers". I found them, though, but now Hurricane Sandy is about 12 hours off from me so, I'll see you all on the other side of this thing. Until then, stay safe if you're also in its path, have a great Halloween and good luck with the first few days of NaNoWriMo if you're doing it! :)


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N: This chapter takes place directly after the events of "Dinner First". I thought about it for a while and decided to just keep this as the third in that sequence. I'll probably add an author's note to chapter one stating briefly the events of "Dinner First" and "Those Nights" so that any new readers won't have to also read those, even if they're short. But because of that, here's a few things to remember about those two stories:**

**The UEO ended the war which had gone on for at least a year following the end of Season 3 by asking Lucas to make a biological weapon. Their aim was to kill most of the Macronesians, but Lucas being Lucas diminished its effects in order to save lives. And yes, it was smallpox Because he did that, the Macs retaliated. The UEO ended the war, but the Macs won it by getting the last laugh: they destroyed ****_seaQuest_**** during the final battle.**

**With ****_seaQuest_**** gone and the war over with, the UEO ****_strongly suggested_**** that Lucas disappear and take a nice, long vacation until they could decide what to do with them. Lucas wanted to tell everyone what ****_really _****happened, but knew that he'd get stuck in the middle because he's the one who made the weapon in the first place. So he abided by their rules.**

**At the end of "Dinner First", Bridger finds Lucas and asks for his help in locating Robert. Lucas eventually agrees, and that is where this chapter picks up.**

****Apologies for the long delay in updating with this chapter, by the way. After finally deciding on how to proceed, my state was hit with both Sandy and now Athena last night. Good times. We're all doing fine; we were lucky where I was that Sandy didn't hit as badly as it did other areas. We did get enough of the wind, however, to take down all the leaves so that Athena didn't hit as hard as Alfred did last year during the SnowOcalypse of October 2011.**

**I hope you all enjoy it now that it's finally here:)**

* * *

**Chapter 27**

**2033**

Former Lieutenant Lucas Wolenczak barely looked at the letter when Captain Nathan Bridger handed it to him. He saw the UEO gold seal and knew what it was. "You can open it if you want."

"I figured you would want to read it first."

"It's a decommission letter," he waved it off, refocusing his eyes on the computer terminal in front of him. "A, 'you're fired, here's your goodbye package, sayonara'."

"You don't know that," Nathan insisted, now sitting down next to him. "Have you found anything?"

"Yes I do, and no, I didn't. You're son's record is locked pretty tight," Lucas told him. "I don't know how deep I can get, but if there's anything you know or just haven't told me about him, it'd probably help."

"Anything in particular?"

Lucas shrugged. "Anything you thought was generally out of the ordinary but never gave a second thought to."

"You mean aside from finding my grandson on my island by himself."

It wasn't a question. "Yes."

"How about the fact that I got a phone call from Dr. Westphalen after I told the UEO I claimed him in my care?" Lucas looked to him and instantly felt betrayed. His looked conveyed everything to Nathan, who backtracked, saying, "I got it sometime after I left _seaQuest_, and when I came back to solve the biologics problem, there wasn't time."

Lucas looked back to his computer without saying anything. How was there not _time_? He had so many questions, but he couldn't quell the anger inside him long enough to ask them. Sure, she was probably fine if he didn't yet saying anything to the contrary (which was really all that mattered) but the fact that he didn't say anything to him still _hurt_. "You didn't think the rest of the first tour crew would have wanted to know?" he asked.

Nathan blinked. "It was the wrong time."

"Well did she at least tell you something useful?" It came out more venemous than it should have.

"Lucas—"

"Just—no," Lucas said. "It's fine. I understand. What did she say?"

"A lot that didn't make sense at the time because Kristin never had the full picture." He only answered the question in hopes of Lucas calming down and forgiving him in the interim. "Like that she watched over Michael for years with Cynthia, but brought him back here for safety after the Macronesians ran through it."

"And your son?"

"Kristin hadn't seen Robert or his wife in years by the time they came back here," Nathan said. "In fact, she said the last time she talked to Addy, his wife, was when she was with one former Lieutenant Benjamin Krieg."

Lucas took a breath and leaned back in his chair. "So Ben lied, too."

"We all have secrets, Lucas," Nathan said. "There must have been a good reason to keep this one."

"That or he forgot," he told his old Captain. The fact that Krieg had been on _seaQuest_ shortly before its demise was no secret to Nathan. Lucas and he had already talked about that before the sun came up this morning. "So Krieg keeps a secret for his old friend… then what?"

Nathan shrugged. "I don't know."

"Robert never told you what he was doing right before he disappeared?" he asked him.

Nathan thought about it for a moment or two. He remembered Robert asking him questions, what his opinions were on certain things like time and space. He remembered Robert asking him what to do about a higher officer he wasn't fond of. But nothing about that seemed out of the ordinary. "I don't think he could have," Nathan finally said. "Whatever they had him doing, it was too top secret even for me."

Lucas wasn't sure what to think of that. At the time, Captain Bridger wouldn't have had the same security clearance he had on _seaQuest_, much less now. "Is there any way you can contact Doctor Westphalen now so we can talk to her?"

"I knew you'd say that," he said, pulling out a piece of paper. "She said she may not answer, but that we can try."

It annoyed him that he knew he'd say it. It annoyed Lucas even more as he took the paper from him that he was once more reminded that the Captain hid her from him. There was probably a reason (ie. everything going on with _seaQuest_ and the Macronesia Alliance) but _come on_. This was _Dr. Westphalen_ they're talking about! She was the closest thing he had to a mother.

They dialed the number, but no one picked up. Lucas tried to hide his disappointment enough to leave a message saying, "Dr. Westphalen. I know it's been a while. I've missed you. When you get this, if you could give me a call back at this number, it would mean the world." He was going to cut it off then, but added, "I've _really_ missed you." He flashed the screen a smile and then ended the call.

The smile left his face as he looked back to Nathan and asked, "What now?"

Nathan hesitated, and Lucas repeated the question with knowing eyes. Nathan released a breath. "You should know my intentions in returning to Banaba were not solely regarding the deletion of that period of UEO history from record."

"You mean the erasing of yours and the Commander's history from record," Lucas corrected.

"Don't let your anger at me keeping Kristin's calls to me a secret from you."

"I'm not just annoyed about that," Lucas said evenly. "Try all the other secrets you've been keeping ever since we got back from Hyperion. Working for Section 7, returning to Banaba, Michael, Kristin—all of it— and for what? Who are you trying to keep in the dark here, and consequently, who are you trying to fool and manipulate?"

"I just want to know what happened to Robert," Nathan defended himself. "If I said that I thought Robert was involved in Banaba, the UEO wouldn't have okayed the mission to go there on personal grounds. But offering the erase that part of history was enough, so they let me seize _seaQuest_ and Commander Ford to go do it myself. Unfortunately, I don't think Robert was ever there."

"So we know whatever he was doing was much higher up the chain than GELF experimentation," Lucas reasoned.

Nathan nodded. "Yes."

Lucas returned his eyes to the screen and started scrolling through the list of case files he had brought up earlier. Every now and then, a name would pop up. He always assumed that this name was tied to Banaba, but now he was unsure. He looked back up to Nathan when he found it. "Does the name Captain Theodore Matthews sound familiar to you?"

"No," Nathan said before he thought about it. But the more he did, the more he recognized it. "That was Robert's CO."

Lucas brought up the file. He had to hack his way into it but it was nothing compared to the World Bank. "Lucky for us, his file isn't wrapped quite so tightly." Then he saw the flag. "Well, not anymore at any rate. This file says Captain Theodore Matthews is dead."

"How?"

"He's listed as KIA."

"So was Robert."

"Yeah," Lucas said. "Except Matthews' KIA date is in 2022."

"Eleven years after Robert," Nathan said, doing the math out quickly in his head. "The original report said all hands on deck were killed in action in 2011." Nathan had always suspected something was amiss, but this was truly unsettling. Either Matthews wasn't on board when whatever happened, happened, or his crew was silenced for some time and then brought back onto the scene still gag-ordered. Nathan relayed these thoughts to Lucas.

Lucas thought about it and then asked, "Why would they do that?"

Nathan shook his head. "Hell if I know." He looked at his watch. "We've been at this for fourteen hours. Why don't we just take a break and get some sleep."

"I'll go after I clean this up," he said. "I don't need anyone tracing us."

Nathan nodded and headed for the spare bedroom Lucas had given him. Lucas followed suit shortly thereafter, heading up to his room and laying there for hours, just thinking. Between all the lies and all the cover-ups, Lucas didn't think his spinning head would ever find sleep again.

It seemed Nathan had the same problem, because two hours later he swung open the door to Lucas' room and asked, "Ever wonder why the UEO just _accepted_ the report I filed about getting sent hundreds of years into the future by CenSys?"

Lucas didn't have to recall much to remember that day. CenSys was the most beautiful computer he had ever laid eyes on. "I didn't know they just accepted it. I figured Noyce and McGath thought you were lying."

"And what about when we came back from Hyperion?" Nathan asked. "Did anyone ever really question anything?"

The more he thought about it, the weirder he realized all of it was. Lucas sat up. "_seaQuest_ recently made another time-jump, and this time the Macronesians picked it up and freaked."

Nathan let the realization hang in the air a few moments before he asked the million-dollar question. "Why would the Macronesians be upset over something the UEO has accepted for over ten years?"

Lucas looked him directly in the eyes. "You don't think…" He couldn't even bring himself finish the sentence that should have been impossible.

"Top secret enough that Robert couldn't tell me," he said. "Top secret enough that the government would mark Matthews' crew MIA presumed KIA in order to silence them."

"Top secret enough that if Kristin and Ben knew, they'd keep it from us because they both had no way of knowing that we already know about them," Lucas said.

The silence that followed hung heavy and stagnant until finally Lucas had the guts to say it out loud. "If they were working on mobius holes, Captain—"

"They'd have been traceable."

Lucas hopped out of bed. "I can find any that they made. The records on _seaQuest_ were mostly destroyed when she was, but I was able to grab the most important files. Even if they're not there, the data has to be somewhere on file with the UEO."

"Let's find them, then."

Lucas nodded and the pair headed back downstairs.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

**2033**

Lucas poured over the files he was able to save when the _seaQuest_ was destroyed, finding nothing useful. He refused to accept that there was _nothing_ there, though, and so kept looking. There wasn't even the smallest trace of a mobius hole in there except for the times when _seaQuest _herself either opened one by accident or was pulled through one. In fact, the only hole he had on file was the one that opened up and pulled them through to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

_Why_, Lucas thought. He looked up at the Captain, and then he remembered. "How much of the memory banks did you delete when we got back from Hyperion?" Lucas asked him.

The Captain leaned backwards in his chair, realizing what he had done. "I took out anything involving Hyperion but…" He brought his fist down onto the table. "They had me delete other things, too, reports about things we shouldn't know about."

"CenSys?" Lucas asked. "Mobius holes? Aliens?"  
Nathan nodded.

Inwardly, Lucas sighed, but he did so as he closed out of his own files and pulled up the UEO's main mainframe. "Onto the bigwigs, then." In comparison to the World Bank, this would be easy. Even after all these years, there was very little Lucas couldn't get into. With Robert's file it was less about accessibility and more about how little was actually there. But the UEO wouldn't know how to hide readings—probably didn't even know what they had found.

As he read the words, Lucas' eyes went wide; how wrong had he been.

"What did you find?" Nathan asked him.

"Well not only did the UEO track the hole that CenSys opened," he said, "which is probably why they just accepted your report, they also thought that it was Matthews' crew that formed it."

"What?" Nathan asked.

Lucas nodded, leaning in to his computer as if it would give him all the answers just that much faster. "They sent a contingent to a colony to question a crew, who I'm assuming was Matthews'. I found the report they filed detailing it."

"Do I even want to know how sealed that file is?"

Shaking his head, Lucas said, "Probably not. The UEO seems to have issues with consistency, though."

"All the better for us," Nathan said. "Fools."

Lucas copy and pasted the report into a text editor, plugged in a removable drive and saved the file to it. When it was done, he backtracked through their system until he found related reports, and then followed the same saving procedure until he had all the reports. And then he shut down his computer, flipped it over and stood to retrieve a screwdriver from one of his kitchen cabinets.

"Lucas?" Nathan asked.

He grabbed a set of screwdrivers and placed them on the table, resting a knee on the seat of his chair. He opened the set and picked out the most appropriate one, unscrewing the bottom screws and pulling out his hard drive. Then Lucas stood again, went over to the water faucet to turn it on, and ran the hard drive under the water.

Nathan stood, watching his old Chief Computer Analyst completely destroy his personal computer. Lucas turned and put the hard drive on the counter and pounding his fist onto it, shattering the memory device to pieces. "I just wanted to be sure."

"They're going to know it was you, either way," Nathan pointed out.

"But I don't want them to know how much we were able or try to take it away," he explained. "I can hide which files I looked into but you're right, they'll know I got in there no matter what I do." Getting in was easy, hiding your tracks was harder. If they came here and found the computer, they could access what he took. "I saved all the reports," he said, wiggling the removable memory drive. "We should probably still get out of here, though."

"Where to?"

"I'd start off with your island," Lucas said, "try find Kristin or maybe even Krieg. Until we read through these files, they're probably our only connection—and maybe even after we read it, if the UEO doesn't have them…" Lucas looked away.

"Who else would?" Nathan asked but then the answer came to him. "You said the Macronesians were worried when _seaQuest_ was taken through that hole."

Lucas nodded. "If nothing in here," he waved the drive again, "gives hints at the UEO still holding Robert and the rest of Matthews' crew, I would be willing to bet that the Macronesians have them."

"Placing us in a whole different ball game," Nathan concluded.

_Oh yeah_, Lucas thought.


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

**2033**

"They just took her right from me, right from here," Krieg told Captain Bridger and Lucas, pointing to his reclaimed living room. Sometime the iceberg incident, with the return of _seaQuest_, he had returned to his old place in case Addy somehow showed up again. He was still sullen about losing her to the UEO when he was supposed to have been keeping her safe. It was only now, without the other things on his mind, he realized what he had kept from both of them. Krieg looked to Lucas when he said, "It wasn't like I forgot to tell you, I just…"

"Had other things on your mind," Lucas finished for him. "Ben, it's okay. There was a lot going at the time, and they both probably swore you to complete secrecy."

"All I know is that the UEO took her, and Kristin took the kid," Ben said.

Nathan nodded. "I know. He's safe."

"Then you know what I know," he shrugged. "I'm sorry sir, I wish I knew more."

"If the UEO took Addy, it's probably safe to assume that they needed her for another mobius hole project and that they had the rest of the crew as well," Lucas said.

"A what?" Ben asked.

"They never told you?"

Ben shook his head. "No. Addy said it was big, but never explained why. I think Kristin knew, but she never told me, either. I figured, 'Well enough that I don't know—can't get caught that way'."

"Except that you were harboring someone they were looking for."

"Well yeah," Krieg admitted. But he was doing it for the wife of an old buddy, presumably for Robert himself. Robert wouldn't want Addy in danger, which was why Robert and Kristin sent her to him in the first place. "I would have done the same for any family member of the _seaQuest_'s crew."

Nathan nodded, thinking. "The Macronesians must have them now," he concluded. "And they must not have told them anything."

"How do you figure?" Lucas asked.

"The war wasn't ended with mobius holes."

Lucas' heart sank, remembering what he had been tasked with. Mobius holes would have been humane compared to what he was forced to inflict on them. "That doesn't make the leap from UEO to Macs, though."

"The same reasoning applies," Nathan said. "And if we had the technology, it wouldn't have been a leap to get Robert's crew to work for the UEO against Bourne."

Alright. So maybe the Captain was right. Lucas rolled his head back, accepting the fact that they were probably going to have to work out a plan to enter what was left of the Macronesian controlled territory—without UEO backup _or_ blessing. It wasn't that he didn't want to do it; he just didn't see it going well at all.

For starters, his face was plastered on every war poster known to mankind. It wasn't hard to figure out who had made the weapon, since it had to be delivered straight from the tube. Therefore, only someone onboard _seaQuest_ could have done it, lowering the selection pool to practically nothing.

There was also the problem of transportation. Then again, assuming Ben could still get his hands on anything under the sun, maybe that wouldn't be such a problem after all…

"Why _wouldn't_ they have just worked with the UEO against Bourne?" Ben asked. "Did anyone ever consider that?"

"Do you know what a mobius hole does?" Lucas asked him. "If it grew unstable for even a second…" he trailed off, cringing at the thought. "Think black hole, but worse."

Krieg's eyebrows rose. "Good point—not even the Macs deserved that."

"Not their civilians, anyway," Lucas agreed, despite the irony.

Nathan saw it on the young man's face. "Orders, remember?"

Lucas shrugged it off. "We're going to need a sub."

"Unless we fly in," Ben said. Nathan and Lucas both looked to their former Supply and Morale Officer. "Like there was any doubt I'd be going, too." Ben stood. "I can get you a sub, but if they're not being held under the ocean somewhere, it may be easier to fly and drop."

Another set of alarms went off in the former Lieutenant's head: Lucas hated heights. Fly on a plane? Sure.

Jump _out_ of one?

"They've got to be somewhere underwater," he told them. "You have to figure: if they have them working on the mobius holes for Bourne, it's better that an accident happen there than on land."

"And if they're just being held prisoner?" Nathan asked him.

"Water's a lot harder to walk through alive than desert or forest."


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30**

**Robert**

I haven't seen Addy in days. I know she's still alive, though. You always just _know_; if you love a person like I love Addy, you just do.

I clung to that thought as days continued to pass by. I think about Michael, and Charlie and sometimes even Mom and Dad. I wonder if Ben and Kristin still have him, or if the UEO got him, too. But then I remembered that Kristin was a mother, too, and there was no way in hell she'd let the UEO take Michael.

The days all blur together. Sometimes the Mac's have us work on some of the technology, but more often than not, we're just questioned and then sent back to our cells. This prison was nothing like the one the UEO kept us in for years; this was the real deal.

Sometimes I get a glimpse of Charlie and I try to make eye contact to pass a message of hope along, but I know that at this point, his hope is gone. If it's the last thing I do, I will make _sure_ he and Addy get out of this alive.

If I can't save everyone, I have to save them. It doesn't appear anyone else is going to. They killed the Commander, or he was killed during the takeover—I'm not sure which. I haven't seen any of the other senior officers, either.

I think it's just me—me, some people under me and the science crew from _Achilles I_.

I try not to think how most of us have spent the majority of our adult lives in some form of prison. I try not to think how most of us may never get the chance to experience anything but.

I try not to, but sometimes, it's all I can do.

* * *

**Addy**

They sat me in front of a computer terminal every day. You'd think for a bunch of people that once almost took over the whole planet, they could at least get half the details right. Yes, I am a scientist but no, I did not work on the mobius holes. Not really. I was there for the biologics, not the physics. But there I sat, just like I did every day, when the guys babysitting me starting chatting up a hurried storm.

I tried not to glance over, to just listen-in and do nothing else, but when they were shouting at each other, I couldn't stop myself. I turned just in time to see one of them shot, followed by the other.

I stood as best I could with my wrists chained loosely to the chair I was in. I was a sitting duck. Why were they shooting each other? I pulled at my chains, starting to panic when I heard a few more _thuds_ on the ground. People were falling, they were dropping like flies.

Why?

My first thought was _gas_. But I didn't feel lightheaded, just scared.

When it was clear the chains weren't going to break, I opted for just scooting my chair along with me, step by slow step, over to where they guys had dropped.

That's when someone came around the corner. I froze. Their gun came dangerously close to my chest.

I looked up to them with scared, pleading eyes. "I just wanted to see what was going—" But then I recognized the face. _Ben Krieg_. I was so confused. So, so,_ so_ confused. But I didn't care.

"Addy?" he asked.

"Get me out of these things," I said, wiggling the chains. I grew anxious. I wanted out. _Now_. And why was he here? _How_ was he here?

Two more figures came around the corner then, and Ben started pushing me back into the main part of the room. "Just give me a second and I'll have you free."

"Krieg?" the younger of the two asked. He looked like just a kid.

_Great. Ben and a _kid_ are here to save me. God help us all_.

But that's when I took a good, long look at the third stranger… and realized he was no stranger at all. He was much older, much greyer and had many more wrinkles, but the resemblance was unmistakable.

He nodded at me, confirming my suspicions. "Addison, I presume?"

Ben lifted the keys to my chains off one of the guards and undid my cuffs. I stood, looking at the trio, as I rubbed my aching wrists. "Yes."

"We're going to get you out," Captain Bridger said, and I believed him. "All of you."

"I don't know where they're keeping Robert," I admitted. I didn't. Every time we saw each other, it was when we were here in this room, being forced to monitor their failed attempts at creating mobius holes. After the UEO tested the weapons, the Mac's got wind of what was going on. That is why we were taken—to stop weaponizing the holes of the UEO, and to start doing it for the Macronesians. Even with the war over, what was left of the Macronesian army wanted revenge.

Clearly we all refused to outright help them, but we did everything we could to keep their experiments stable—for everyone's sake.

"Do you know where the cells are?" Krieg asked.

I knew where _my_ cell was. I nodded. "Sure."

I led them through the hallways, cautious as ever. The Macs probably never dreamed anyone would ambush this place, so it was easy to get around. As we passed by cell after cell it became clear that there was no way we'd be able to leave the others behind. They pleaded with me through their eyes, questioning what was happening. Like I could leave them here after everything—I think not.

"How are we going to get everyone out of here?" I asked.

"That'd be my job," said the kid as we continued walking past the cells. He was looking down at a small computer in his hands. "Captain, the control room is just up ahead."

"I'll go with him," Krieg said. "You and Addy need to find Robert."

"And Charlie," I said.

"Who's Charlie?" Captain Bridger asked.

"A close friend."

"Addy?" I heard from the next cell down. _It couldn't be that easy_.

I jogged until I reached it and found Charlie with his face pressed against the bars. "Charlie!"

"Addy!" He pulled on the bars. "Get me out, Addy, please," he begged.

"I'm working on it," I told him. "We need to figure out how to take over the prison but that's why they're here." I pointed a thumb over my shoulder.

"Is that…"

"Robert's father, yes," I said. "We will get out. I promise you."

He nodded and backed away from the bars.

"Hey kid!" I yelled.

He spun back on me. "Wait up. I'll go with you, Krieg should help find Robert." I caught up with him. "They've sat me in front of their computer systems practically since I got here. I can help you better than he can."

"You don't want to find your husband?" he asked me.

"I know Krieg and the Captain will."

The kid extended a hand. "Call me Lucas."

"Let's do this then."

* * *

**A/N:** Apologies for it being short. Things have been... hectic at best. The last two months have been utter chaos. More to come soon, although probably not until after Valentine's Day. I still work two retail jobs, one with chocolate, so I'll be pulling twelve hour days until then. I also started grad school finally so (YAY!) and therefore have a new website for my writing and blog (jessharveywrites DOT com). So that's why I've been MIA until now. Have a great weekend everyone :)


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